Councillor Louise Steer recalls sister’s death from drugs in pill testing debate
A Greens councillor broke down in tears as she recalled the death of her sister from a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol during a fiery debate on pill testing at a Sydney council meeting.
A Greens councillor broke down in tears as she recalled the death of her sister from a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol during a fiery debate on pill testing at a Sydney council meeting.
It comes after a new list released by the NSW Government claimed six out of 14 “higher risk” music festivals are located in the Inner West Courier distribution area.
Councillor Cr Louise Steer struggled to fight back tears as she recalled losing her sister Gabrielle 19 years ago due “fatal intoxication” caused by mixing heroin and alcohol.
“Her death has left a lasting hole in the lives of every single person in her family,” Cr Steer said
“I don’t want other families to go through this because you never get over it; you never forget it and you can never bring them back once they’re dead.
“A simple test can save lives.”
Cr Steer made the comments at the Inner West Council meeting on Tuesday night where her colleague Colin Hesse had planned to put up a proposal to write to Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Opposition leader Michael Daley calling on them to introduce a trial of pill testing.
However, he backed down at the last minute when it became clear the motion would be blocked by Labor and Liberal councillors.
Instead the council backed his amended proposal to support the holding of a drug summit so experts could discuss a range of drug harm mitigation measures including pill testing.
The resolution is in line with NSW Labor’s policy on the issue, which has left the door open to pill testing as one option that could potentially stem the spate of recent drug deaths at music festivals.
On Saturday the State Government released a list of 14 “higher risk” festivals including Days Like This to be held next month in Camperdown and the Laneway festival headed to Callan Park next February.
The Knockout Games of Destiny, Rolling Loud and HTID festivals, which are staged at Sydney Olympic Park, are also on the hit list of events that will face a strict new licensing scheme.
Cr Hesse earlier told the Courier the “just say no” approach was clearly not working in the wake of the five drug deaths at music festivals in as many months.
“The Greens don’t endorse the taking of illegal drugs at all but we recognise young people will take them and the point is to make it safe to prevent more deaths,” Cr Hesse said.
“Let’s have the conversation because there’s other places in the world which have gone down that path as a harm minimisation measure.
“We should not endanger people’s lives based on the fallacious idea that just saying no works.”
Cr Hesse said he had never dabbled with ecstasy himself but it was foolish to expect young people wouldn’t.
“I’ve never smoked pot, never taken pills, I’m really quite boring although I’ve drunk too much beer on occasion which is not clever by the way.”
Liberal councillor Julie Passas said pill testing would only serve to encourage drug use and help dealers peddle their dangerous wares.
“What message are you sending out?,” she said.
“We would be condoning drug taking to children and young people, and we would be aiding and abetting the manufacturers of illegal drugs and helping the drug dealers.
“This is ridiculous.”
Labor’s Mark Drury said debating drug policy was not the core business of council.
“We’ve got massive infrastructure projects to manage and basic services across the new Inner West municipality that have to be improved and yet these Greens only want to talk about state issues that we have no responsibility for,” he said.
“If they want to make state or federal policy they should resign from council and run for parliament so the rest of us can focus on getting the basics like footpaths, roads and recycling.”
Crs Passas and Vic Macri opposed the drug summit.
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