Dance events have more than four times the amount of ecstasy-related arrests than nightlife areas
DAMNING new figures show ecstasy use is rampant in the light of Sydney’s dance music festival party drug crisis. SEE THE INTERACTIVE
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THE full extent of Sydney’s dance music festival party drug crisis has been revealed, with damning new figures highlighting ecstasy use is running rampant at event locations.
As the state government prepares to crack down after a spate of deaths and suspected overdoses at festivals, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research figures reveal dance music event locations have more than four times the amount of ecstasy-related arrests than other popular nightlife districts across the city.
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Sydney’s city centre, which comprises of popular electronic music nightclubs and plays host to the popular Field Day music festival, recorded the highest amount ecstasy possession/and or use arrests with a total of 356 from July 2017 to June 2018.
Moore Park (274), Olympic Park (213) and Centennial Park (210) — all of which play host to live music and outdoor festivals — closely follow with a combined 607 arrests for the same period.
Comparatively, Sydney nightlife hotspots Newtown (11), Surry Hills (15), Potts Point (54), Darlinghurst (17), Bondi (20) Pyrmont (35), Manly (8) and The Rocks (10) saw a total of just 170 arrests.
The news comes as the state government announced a panel seek urgent advice on what extra measurers need to be introduced at music festivals to prevent further drug-related deaths after two revellers fatally overdosed at Sydney’s Defqon 1 earlier this month.
The controversy follows 256 people treated for overdoses and 3500 pills seized at the Sydney Showground’s “Midnight Mafia” in May.
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April’s “State of Trance” event saw 45 people treated for overdoses, three hospitalised and hundreds of pills seized, while February’s “Supremacy” dance party at Sydney Olympic Park also saw 60 overdoses and 800 pills seized.
Police Commissioner Mick Fuller, Chief Medical Officer Dr Kerry Chant and Chair of the independent Liquor and Gaming Authority Philip Crawford will form the new panel to explore how to stamp out “culture” of illicit drug use at music festivals.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian previously said events like Sydney’s Defqon 1 — which has seen four deaths in five years — would not be allowed to continue in its “current form”.
The Daily Telegraph yesterday revealed which area of Sydney had become the city’s hotspot for cocaine.
“Clearly action needs to be taken to make that event safer and we will be taking advice from the expert panel in the next four weeks on how that needs to happen,” she said earlier this month.
The panel will explore whether new offences or harsher penalties are required, with the premier and police minister Troy Grant both remaining strong on refusing to introduce pill testing as a safety precaution at festivals, arguing it will encourage drug use.
“[Pill testing] is a proliferation of saying it’s okay to take drugs that are more than likely to cause you medical harm and in too many circumstance death. It just absolute nonsense … they’re calling on the government to introduce some kind of quality control measure for drug dealers,” Mr Grant said.