Death on the dancefloor: Our young keep dying partying hard
AS NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian rules out pill testing at dance festivals and exasperated police admit repeat warnings of taking dangerous drugs is falling on deaf ears, the list of young party people dying continues to grow.
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PREMIER Gladys Berejiklian has ruled out pill testing as a way to make music festivals safe following the weekend dance party tragedy that left two dead and another three fighting for their lives.
The Premier insisted the only way to stay safe was to not take drugs.
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“Anyone who advocates pill testing is giving the green light to drugs,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“That is absolutely unacceptable. There is no such thing as a safe drug.”
Ms Berejiklian said the death of two young partygoers was a warning to anyone contemplating taking drugs. “Do not take them,” she said. “We have zero tolerance to drugs. Pill testing is not a solution, giving a green light to taking drugs is not a solution.”
Sydney man Joseph Pham, 23 and a Vicorian woman, 21 died after collapsing at the event at Penrith on Saturday.
Three people, including a 19-year-old man, are critically ill in hospital while 700 of the 30,000 attendees were treated by medical staff, police say “I’m absolutely aghast at what’s occurred. I don’t want any family to go through the tragedy that some families are waking up to this morning,” the premier said.
“This is an unsafe event and I’ll be doing everything I can to make sure it never happens again.”
Police said a Jamisontown woman, 26, remains in a critical condition at Nepean hospital while the 19-year-old man from Artarmon was flown to Westmead Hospital and is in intensive care.
A Newcastle man is also critically ill while more than a dozen people were treated at Nepean hospital for drug-related issues.
Toxicology reports are expected within a week to uncover exactly what drugs, if any, were taken by those who fell ill.
Acting Assistant Commissioner Allan Sicard said 180 police were at the event and had worked with organisers to try to keep revellers safe.
“What we can’t do is be in people’s heads, be in people’s decision-making processes when they decide to take illicit drugs,” he told reporters. Greens MP David Shoebridge said the police presence at the festival was aggressive and called for festivals to introduce pill-testing, amnesty bins and other harm minimisation measures.
“We can’t keep repeating past mistakes,” he told AAP.
Defqon.1 organisers, having dealt with multiple deaths in the event’s ten-year history, warned ticket holders the festival’s drug policy was zero tolerance. “This means that all types of soft and hard drugs are prohibited. If drugs are found, you will be handed over to the police,” a statement on the festival’s website said.
Police say 10 people were charged with drug supply offences, including two 17-year-old girls who allegedly carried 120 capsules “internally” into the venue.
Ecstasy, cocaine and GHB were among the drugs confiscated from 69 people at the festival held at the Sydney International Regatta Centre.
Local detectives have formed a new police strikeforce, dubbed Highworth, to investigate the two deaths.
HARDCORE EVENT WITH MURKY HISTORY
FOUNDED in Holland in 2003, Defqon.1 is no stranger to controversy.
Run by Dutch festival organiser Q-Dance, it is an annual event — featuring hardcore techno, house and trance music, and dubbed by organisers as “the world’s largest harder styles festival” — that has attracted massive crowds around the world, from the Netherlands to Chile and Australia.
And since the festival came to Australia in 2009, people — many of them either outrageously clad or in fancy dress — have travelled from far and wide to the event at Penrith’s International Regatta Centre.
Featuring some of the biggest-name DJs in the hard dance music world, including Holland’s Headhunterz, it is an 18+ event and says it maintains a zero-tolerance drug policy.
The festival’s website clearly warns that “if drugs are found, you will be handed over to the police”.
But despite this it has made unwanted headlines for drug-related incidents and deaths. In 2013, 23-year-old James Munroe died from a suspected overdose, suffering a series of cardiac arrests after disclosing to paramedics that he had consumed three “pills”.
And in 2015 Nigel Pauljevic, 26, was found unconscious in a tent and later died in Nepean Hospital.
AGONY OF ECSTASY, ANATOMY OF TRAGEDY
October 1995: Anna Wood, 15, dies after taking ecstasy at a Sydney dance party.
She died from acute water intoxication after taking ecstasy.
Anna and a group of schoolfriends had attended a rave dance party at the Phoenician Club on Broadway in Ultimo, in inner Sydney.
November 2012: “Mum, I have taken some very bad acid and everything is very odd here.”
These were the last words of Daniel Buccianti, 34, who died after taking acid at the Rainbow Serpent festival in Beaufort, Victoria.
September 2013: James Munro, 23, dies of a suspected ecstasy overdose at the Defqon.1 festival at Sydney International Regatta Centre in Penrith.
November 2014: Georgina Bartter, 19, dies after taking ecstasy pills at Harbour Life festival at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair.
Sydney teenager Rebecca Hannibal pleaded guilty to supplying the ecstasy tablet that killed her best friend. She was convicted and placed on a good behaviour bond.
University student Matthew Forti was sentenced to at least 12 months’ jail for supplying the “purple speaker” ecstasy pills that led to Bartter’s death.
February 2015: Tolga Toksoz, 19, dies at a State of Trance party in Sydney after reportedly competing with friends to see who could swallow the most ecstasy pills.
His father Andy Toksoz said at the time:”Apparently he just collapsed. It’s just a bit tough, it’s very bad but what can you do? The raves, I don’t know why they have it. He’s never been to anything like that.” he said.
September 2015: Nigel Pauljevic, 26, dies at Defqon.1 festival at Penrith.
He was one of 18 people from Defqon admitted to Nepean Hospital.
Police at the time said anti-drug messages were not sinking in, with 46 drug-related arrests.
October 2015: Twenty-three year-old woman dies after she is thought to have taken drugs at the Dragon Dreaming festival at Wee Jasper near Canberra.
November 2015: Sylvia Choi, 25, from Oyster Bay, dies at the Stereosonic festival at Sydney Olympic Park after taking ecstasy.
While Ms Choi lost her life, another woman was put in an induced coma, nine revellers were rushed to hospital and another 120 were treated for the effects of drugs.