Man dies after suspected drug overdose at Beyond The Valley music festival as police warn of dangerous pills
A man has died after overdosing on drugs at popular Gippsland music festival Beyond The Valley as eight people were arrested for suspected drug dealing and possession at a Sidney Myer Music Bowl music festival.
A man, 20, has died after a suspected drug overdose at a music festival in Victoria’s southeast.
The Mansfield man was flown to hospital from the Beyond the Valley festival in Warragul on Saturday, but could not be saved.
His death on Tuesday comes just days after a man, 22, died after taking an unknown substance at Lost Paradise festival in New South Wales at the weekend.
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On Tuesday, eight of those attending The First NYD music festival at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne were arrested for suspected drug dealing and possession. Another 32 people were cautioned of the 40 caught with illegal substances.
Sniffer dogs and uniformed police officers patrolling the entry searched more than 100 people between 2pm and 5.30pm.
Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Rob Milliken said the goal was to keep the 2500 people in the crowd safe.
“Events both in Victoria and New South Wales indicate both to us and the wider community that it’s a considerable risk to be ingesting these substances, because we just don’t know what’s in them,” he said.
“It’s concerning.”
He advised people to steer clear of all drugs.
“By all means, come and enjoy the party … dance the night away, but please do not bring drugs with you,” Det Sen Sgt Milliken said.
“A lot of times we don’t know what are in these capsules and tablets, so it’s the health and safety aspect of it that is the most concerning.”
Most of those cautioned on New Year’s Day had small amounts of drugs for “personal use”.
In the space of an hour, the Herald Sun saw 22 people who attracted the attention of sniffer dogs taken out of the queue and directed to a fenced-off area in which police officers carried out searches, took swabs, and conducted interviews.
A Gippsland man, 24, in line to enter the dance party, was strip-searched after attracting the attention of a sniffer dog.
The man, who wished to remain anonymous, said he had taken a drug in pill form before arriving, but was not carrying any drugs.
“They stripped me down, and then I went into the tent,” he told the Herald Sun.
“Then I squatted down and I had to cough.”
The man who died after attending Beyond the Valley was one of three people taken to hospital following suspected overdoses at the event, which ran from Friday until New Year’s Day.
On Monday, a man in his 20s was flown to Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition, and was last night listed as stable.
On Sunday morning, paramedics took a man, also in his 20s, to Dandenong Hospital in a critical condition. He has since been discharged.
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Police dogs will be out in force sniffing out drugs at music festivals statewide over the New Year period.
And warnings have been sent to festival patrons, alerting them to a dangerous pill now in circulation.
The latest overdoses followed Saturday’s death of Brisbane man Josh Tam, 22.
Mr Tam and two other people were admitted to hospital after taking an “unknown substance” at the Lost Paradise music festival in New South Wales.
On Sunday, attendees at Falls Festival events in Lorne, Marion Bay and Byron Bay were sent a message, warning: “There is an extremely dangerous orange pill in circulation. Regardless of pill variation, one pill can kill.”
A Falls spokesman said the message was sent after medical teams alerted organisers that the pill was circulating, but no problems had been reported at its festivals.
Police say officers and dogs will man festival entry points to try to detect patrons carrying drugs.
But police said enforcement was more difficult inside venues. A senior officer with experience of policing such events said it was hard for police to make their way around among huge numbers of people, and “you run the risk of those with drugs just swallowing the whole bag just to not get caught”.
Both Victoria Police and the State Government on Monday rejected renewed calls to introduce pill testing at music festivals in an effort to prevent overdoses.
Police said there were no safe varieties or doses of illicit drugs.
Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said police were aware of the potentially deadly orange pill in circulation, but similar dangers were attached to any pill.
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“Any pill — it doesn’t matter what the colour is. You don’t know what’s in it,” Mr Patton said.
“They’re produced by criminals. Often, it’s just garbage picked up off a floor and thrown in a mix.”
Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt said a zero-tolerance approach to drug use was needed rather than pill testing, which could simply give young people a false sense of security about what they were taking.
“We know that in places where police enforcement is conducted, large numbers of drug-users are detected, and diverted to support (services). Large quantities of drugs are found abandoned, and traffickers are removed from our streets,” Mr Gatt said.
Mental Health Minister Martin Foley said: “We have no plans to allow for pill testing at events in Victoria.”
Originally published as Man dies after suspected drug overdose at Beyond The Valley music festival as police warn of dangerous pills
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