MDMA madness: Teenage pill poppers clogging the courts
DESPITE five drug-related deaths at music major festivals last year, party drug offences continue to swamp the courts. And magistrates are sick of it.
NSW
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A BEAUTICIAN, a design student, a criminology student and an accountant.
These cleanskins are some of the young people starting 2016 on good behaviour bonds after court lists were flooded with drug possession charges over the summer holiday.
Despite five drug-related deaths and a whopping 836 people charged for drug possession or supply at major festivals last year, party drug offences continue to swamp the courts.
The latest spate of arrests at music events saw one magistrate venting his frustration.
Downing Centre Local Court deputy chief magistrate Christopher O’Brien could barely conceal his exasperation when a beautician, 19, a design student, 19 and a criminology student, 18, pleaded guilty to possessing MDMA at the Fuzzy Field Day music festival at the Domain on January 1.
“It always amazes me that every January I come back and for the first three months of the year I read all about the Fuzzy Field festival,” he told them.
“It is beyond comprehension that any young person could not know that these festivals are swarming with police, yet you are prepared to risk ruining your careers, ruining your lives, to have a tablet at a music festival,” he said.
Mr O’Brien dismissed the charges against the three friends, did not record a conviction and sentenced them to 12-month good behaviour bonds.
Burwood Local Court, which is the closest magistrates complex to music festival hotspot Sydney Olympic Park, has also been flooded after arrests at recent music events.
The court list is full with 53 mostly cleanskins, all arrested at November’s Stereosonic festival, where pharmacist Sylvia Choi died after taking ecstasy.
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