Gold Coast Schoolies: Police on high alert for potent MDMA, synthetic opioid, nitazine

More than 100 police rostered on for the Gold Coast Schoolies are on high alert for potentially deadly drugs, including MDMA, synthetic opioid and nitazine, at this year’s annual event.

Gold Coast Chief Superintendent Craig Hanlon says more than 100 officers were rostered to cover Schoolies. Picture: Nigel Hallett

• Good, bad, ugly of Schoolies
• Truth about pill testing

An extremely pure and potentially deadly batch of drugs have authorities on high alert as the annual Schoolies event kicks off for another year.

Cameron Francis, CEO of The Loop, which operates drug and pill testing clinics in Burleigh and Brisbane said his team were concerned about young people using MDMA following reports of deaths overseas.

“We’re worried that MDMA could pose a significant danger, especially in terms of dosage, it could be much more than people expect,” he said.

There were also concerns that a synthetic opioid, nitazine, would be found in drugs during the Schoolies period.

“There have been a number of deaths in Victoria and New South Wales and it’s turning up in MDMA and cocaine so kids have no idea what’s happening and then it’s too late,” he said.

His comments come as Youth Minister Sam O’Connor confirmed that his would likely be the first and last year of controversial pill-testing at Schoolies, declaring that “there is no safe way to take drugs”.

Bonney MP Sam O'Connor.

Mr O’Connor visited the Schoolies precinct at Surfers Paradise on Friday ahead of the festival starting this weekend, but avoided the pill-testing marquee where media filmed testers using the equipment.

The LNP had vowed to scrap the initiative if it won last month’s election but said it was forced to allow it to proceed after being locked into a contract let by the former Miles government.

“This contract was put in place by the former government and we are honouring that and it will go ahead this year, but our ongoing position is that we don’t support it,” Mr O’Connor said.

“That is our position, we do not support pill testing. There is no safe way to take drugs.”

Asked what would happen if Schoolies’ pill-testing was a “huge success”, with emergency treatment centre admissions lowered, Mr O’Connor repeated the government’s position.

He said while the government would consider expert health advice, “that’s our position - there is no safe way to take drugs”.

Mr Francis said about 40 per cent of people who had drugs tested either threw out the substance or told testers they would take a lower dose after learning of the risks.

“We find the most common ingredient in the substances that people might be taking and explain the risks of that to them, and what the risk reduction strategies might be,” he said.

“We tell people how the drugs work, how to stay safe and where to go in the event of an overdose or emergency.”

Chief Superintendent Craig Hanlon says more than 100 officers were rostered to cover Schoolies. Picture: Nigel Hallett

The Courier-Mail revealed last weekend that police would not target the pill-testing site at Schoolies and the Gold Coast’s top cop, Chief Superintendent Craig Hanlon, reinforced this on Friday.

“We’ll avoid the pill-testing precinct but will obviously be sometimes going to the medical centre and will be in the hub all the time,” he said.

More than 100 police a night have been rostered to cover Schoolies and will be patrolling the precinct in vehicles including ATVs, on horseback, from the air in the police chopper and by boat.

Between 16,000 and 20,000 students are expected to hit the Gold Coast for the end-of-year event.

Gold Coast University Hospital emergency specialist Dr Jeff Hooper said up to 100 teenagers a night were expected through the Schoolies emergency treatment centre on the Surfers Paradise Esplanade.

The centre will be staffed by a team of doctors, nurses, social and mental health workers and “wellness teams”.