Music festival deaths inquest recommends pill testing and end to police drug operations
Drug use at NSW music festivals should be decriminalised and the use of police sniffer dogs has been linked to drug overdoses, a draft coroner’s report obtained by The Daily Telegraph says. READ THE FULL REPORT.
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The use of drugs at NSW music festivals should be decriminalised and the use of police sniffer dogs is linked to drug overdoses, according to a draft coroner’s report obtained by The Daily Telegraph.
In a sweeping five-page report state coroner Harriet Grahame has called for the introduction of pill testing, removal of sniffer dogs and restricted powers to conduct body searches after she conducted an inquest into the deaths of six festival goers in NSW.
“Decriminalising personal use of drugs as a mechanism to reduce the harm caused by drug use,’’ was one of the recommendations.
The report also calls for the removal of drug detections dogs because their presence causes overdoses.
“Given the evidence of a link between the use of drug dogs and more harmful means of consumption (including double dosing, pre-loading, swallowing drugs and insertion in a vaginal or anal cavity) the model of policing music festivals be changed to remove drug detection dogs, the report said.
It also said the use of strip searches were potentially harmful and recommended strict guidelines be followed before a search could be conducted but added that detection by a dog was not sufficient. It failed to say on what grounds a strip search could be done.
“It basically makes drugs a free for all at these festivals,’’ said one police officer.
“It decriminalises drugs, removes sniffer dogs and makes strip searching virtually impossible,’’ he said.
The politically explosive suggestions puts the coroner on a collision course with the state government which has previously ruled out pill testing and rejected claims festivals are over-policed.
Senior NSW cops and government ministers are set to oppose Ms Grahame’s recommendations and were stunned at the extent to which they would reduce police presence and powers at festivals.
“You might as well legalise drugs at festivals from what is contained in the report,’’ one source said.
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Another source said the government’s stance against pill testing was well established and the coroner’s report would not change that.
The recommendations are among more than 40 in the draft sent last week to the NSW Department of Health and shared with the NSW Police Department. It comes after Ms Grahame examined the deaths of six young people at music festivals from December 2017 to January 2019.
A spokesman for the NSW coroner’s office said: “The findings will be handed down on November 8, 2019. The recommendations have not been finalised.’’
During the inquest, Ms Grahame attended two festivals, including the Show Your True Colours festival, to witness first-hand police activity and other procedures at the events.
“It made me feel nervous,” she said. “There were lines and lines of police and dogs. I was surprised at how intense it was.”
The court heard from experts, medical staff and police about the deaths of Alex Ross-King, 19, Joshua Tam, 22, Callum Brosnan, 21, Diana Nguyen, 21, Joseph Pham, 23, and Nathan Tran, 18, at various festivals.
Psychologist Dr Stephen Bright told the inquest that a heavy police presence should be taken into account as possibly contributing to the deaths.
A number of other experts believed pill testing would help reduce the chances of deaths.
But a report tendered to the inquest by forensic psychiatrist Dr Russ Scott said there was no evidence pill testing reduced drug taking, but it could actually have the opposite effect.
“The proposed rollout of formalised testing which purports to make pill taking at music festivals ‘safer’ may have the unintended effect of further contributing to the ‘normalisation’ of the use of potentially ‘party’ drugs or ‘recreational’ drugs in Australia,” Dr Scott said.
Tony Wood, whose daughter Anna was 15 when she died from a reaction to an ecstasy tablet in 1995, said: “Any relaxation of police presence and pill testing will send the wrong message to young people.
“My recommendation to the coroner is to listen to the police and others that are against pill testing.”
Cong Pham, whose son Joseph, 23, died at the Defqon.1 festival in Sydney in September last year, told The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday he did not support the recommendation to implement pill testing.
“I don’t think that’s a good solution,” he said.
“Only some people who are very strong minded will come forward for the testing, but the majority will not.
“In my opinion, they’ve already decided to take it — regardless of the testing.”
Mr Pham also said he did not support the recommendation of removing police sniffer dogs from events.
“I reckon they’re good — they’re a good means to identify who is bringing in the drugs into the event to sell to customers,” he said.
Mr Pham said drug dealers at events were “the real criminals”.
Originally published as Music festival deaths inquest recommends pill testing and end to police drug operations