Tough new laws target drugs at music festival
DRUG dealers who kill festivalgoers could be jailed for up to 25 years while people caught possessing small amounts of drugs will be hit with hefty on-the-spot fines under a raft of tough new rules being brought in to improve safety at music festivals.
NSW
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DRUG dealers who kill festivalgoers could be jailed for up to 25 years while people caught possessing small amounts of drugs will be hit with hefty on-the-spot fines under a raft of tough new rules being brought in to improve safety at music festivals.
An expert panel has given the government seven recommendations on how to improve safety at music festivals after Premier Gladys Berejiklian called for the advice in the wake of two deaths at Defqon in Penrith last month.
The government hopes that by the time music festival season kicks off this summer they will have the range of tough new measures in place.
Next month legislation will be introduced for a new penalty explicitly targeting drug dealers whose product leads to a death.
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“We want to send a very strong message that if you knowingly supply someone … and that person than dies you have to be hold accountable. We need to have these deterrences in place,” Ms Berejiklian said.
The government is looking at making this penalty up to 25 years in jail — in line with manslaughter offences. They lowest it could go would be 10 years in line with grievous bodily harm.
The government will work through the practical issues of applying the new law such as the difficulty of identifying the dealer who supplies the deadly drug and whether a friend would be charged if they passed on a deadly pill to their friend for free.
“If it’s handed from one friend to another this needs to be considered in the legislation very, very carefully but we know dealers, hard core dealers, profile very differently to a friend giving another friend a tablet,” Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said.
NSW Police are also going to trial a new system of on-the-spot fine of $400-$500 for people caught in possession of small amounts of drugs at music festivals.
The move is similar to recent changes with low-range drink driving where offenders now get on-the-spot fines rather than facing court.
“Some of these charges for young people who don’t profile as normal criminals, they’re just users, can be life changing,” Mr Fuller said.
Mr Fuller said he hoped the new measures would change a “generation” of young people’s attitudes towards drug use.
It’s understood the new drug death offence and the trial of fines for drug possession were recommendations by Mr Fuller who was on the expert panel providing advice.
The government will also set up a new licencing regime that will approve music festivals that want to be held in NSW.
It’s understood that if a festival has had issues in the past with drug overdoses or other safety problems the panel will put tough restrictions on them, such as limiting alcohol service, to make them clean up their act.
The panel will comprise police, health, local government and liquor and gaming bureaucrats and have the power to effectively ban a music festival by not giving them a licence if they’re deemed too dangerous.
There will also be extra funding for drug education.
There is no recommendation for pill testing to be brought in at festivals.
“This idea that pill testing it s going to save lives across NSW in terms of overdoses is a myth,” he said.