Testing confirms illicit drugs present at Fashion Week event
A SPECIAL investigation found traces of cocaine and cannabis drugs in two bathrooms at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia at Carriageworks in Redfern on Wednesday night.
NSW
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COCAINE and cannabis were being used at one of Fashion Week’s biggest events, The Saturday Telegraph can today reveal.
A special investigation found traces of the illicit drugs in two bathrooms at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia at Carriageworks in Redfern on Wednesday night.
Samples were taken from the top of toilet seats and cisterns in both the male and female bathrooms and tested by the nationally accredited drug testing firm Integrity Sampling.
The Saturday Telegraph collected four samples from the men’s cubicles, one from the disabled toilets and five from the women’s bathrooms between 6.05pm and 8pm, during the I.AM.GIA show.
Cocaine residue was found in two samples from the female bathroom and one from the male bathroom.
A fourth sample, from another male cubicle, tested positive for cannabis.
The findings come as Sydney battles a cocaine abuse crisis, with the high-end drug leaving police to process an avalanche of possession charges every weekend.
Last year those figures skyrocketed by 43 per cent to 2791 across the state, with the majority of users caught in the Sydney CBD and eastern suburbs nightclubs.
The problem has intensified in Sydney’s infamous eastern suburbs party scene, where the number of coke users charged with possession jumped from 363 to 571 in just one year.
NSW Drug Squad Commander Peter McErlain said cocaine use was not exclusively an issue in the fashion industry but a widespread problem across Sydney with demand rising rapidly.
“Kids today just do not know what they are putting into their bodies,” he said.
“It could be anything from concrete dust to poison or insect repellent that these drug dealers are mixing in (to cocaine) so education is a big part of tackling the problem.”
Sydney modelling agent Val Edwards — who attended Fashion Week and is not a drug user — said she had heard “horror stories” about young models being led astray.
She urged parents to take care when choosing representation for their daughters.
“Modelling is quite different to a lot of other professions, you are exposed to a lot of things as a youngster,” Ms Edwards said.
“There is a lot of temptation and what I say to them is they need very much to have their parents with them at all times when they go for a shoot, whether it be a model shoot or a runway shoot.”
Fashion Week organisers did not respond to multiple requests for comment.