NSW Greens advocate for legalisation of MDMA

MDMA should be legalised and sold over the counter at pharmacies to prevent more deaths at music festivals, according to The NSW Greens.

Greens candidate for Summer Hill Tom Raue wants to see MDMA legalised so it can be better regulated.

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MDMA should be legalised and sold over the counter to prevent more deaths at music festivals, according to a high-profile NSW Greens senator.

During a live stream Q&A at inner west pub The Temperance Society on February 3, the Greens candidate for Summer Hill Tom Raue and Greens NSW spokesman for Justice and Police David Shoebridge discussed the benefits of regulating the supply of MDMA as opposed to pill testing.

“The immediate benefit is you take it out of the hands of organised crime and we reduce the amount of violence and … time we spend on police and jails,” Mr Shoebridge said.

“And you do that straight away by regulating and legalising it but you also have a product that people know what they’re taking.

“You can have really clear and detailed advice about what’s in the pill, how it will interact with cannabis, how it will interact with alcohol, how many is safe to take, clear advice about what you do on a particularly hot day, you hydrate yourself.

“You’ll know the quantity and strength of the drugs you’re taking. That package of benefits just seems so obvious and that’s just the starting point.”

There have been a spate of drug deaths at music festivals recently including at Sydney Olympic Park.

This included Callum Brosnan, 19, who died after attending the Knockout Games of Destiny festival in December.

Mr Raue suggested party goers could purchase MDMA at a pharmacy with a prescription.

“It needs to be available to people where you can have advice from medical experts and what the safe dosage would be and how to use it properly,” Mr Raue said.

“Because you won’t always have access to a pill testing laboratory when you buy (MDMA) from the black market, but if it’s done at the point of production, if that’s actually regulated, you don’t need to test the pills.

“And we know most of the harms from MDMA is actually the result of prohibition, it’s when you take something that you think is MDMA but you’re being sold something else.”

Video still of Callum Brosnan dancing at Knockout Games at Sydney Olympic Park shortly before he died of a drug-related overdose.

Mr Raue previously worked for Mr Shoebridge when he started the controversial “sniff off” campaign against drug dogs.

Mr Shoebridge said it was inevitable that young people would take MDMA so it made sense to take regulate its distribution.

“It would need to be limited to over 18s, with plain packaging, you wouldn’t be handing it over to the market more broadly but it would need to be provided at a guaranteed concentration, at a price where it wasn’t being priced out by the black market,” he said.

“Our actual policy is we would throw this to a commission of experts who would work out the finer details about how it would be regulated.”

The Q&A also focused on the need for drug reform with the pair calling for an end to the “war on drugs”.

“It’s a really simply law change to legalise cannabis and MDMA and provide a proper regulatory framework to make it a health care issue rather than a criminal one,” Mr Raue said.

“It boggles my mind that it hasn’t been done yet.”

Dr Alex Wodak has also recently suggested drugs like MDMA should be regulated and sold at chemists.

Mr Shoebridge said “the world according to (Premier) Gladys Berejiklian” was one where “no one takes drugs and they go and do finger-painting on the weekend and duck out and have two beers and then go home on a Saturday night”.

“We know MDMA is already out there in large quantities, extremely easy to purchase and much cheaper than alcohol,” he said.

“It’s not going away, it’s extremely popular, how do you make it safer?”

Drug reform advocate Alex Wodak also recently suggested substances like MDMA, marijuana and ecstasy should be regulated and sold at chemists.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has labelled the notion of selling MDMA over the counter as “ridiculous”. AAP Image/Dean Lewins

Speaking on Today, Dr Alex Wodak, head of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, called for the idea to be considered as a way of reducing deaths.

“You can’t prevent deaths completely. But if you reduce them a lot that’s well worthwhile,” Dr Wodak said.

“I’m not saying (it’s) safe, I’m saying it’s safer. Nothing is safe — it is only you can reduce the risk, you can’t eliminate the risk. And we should try to reduce the risk.”

“It would eradicate the impurities. It would eradicate merchandise being cut with impurities … there will be a known dose,” Dr Wodak said.

He has been campaigning for a harm minimisation approach to illicit drugs, telling the breakfast show that putting substances like MDMA and marijuana in pharmacies would take the power out of the hands of “backyard amateur operators”.

Greens MP David Shoebridge suggests MDMA could be sold in plain packaging to over 18s over the counter. Picture: AAP Image/ Joel Carrett

Health Minister Brad Hazzard described the idea as “ridiculous”.

“I am shocked, I’m horrified that someone would suggest that we should be buying this stuff over counters across NSW,” Mr Hazzard said.

“But I’m also very disturbed that NSW Labor leadership has sat on the fence here... not giving a combined leadership voice against the use of drugs...”

Summer Hill state Labor MP Jo Haylen said: “The current approach to illicit drug use is not working”.

“We can’t afford to let ideology get in the way of health based solutions that the evidence shows will save lives.

“I’ve long advocated for a health-focused approach that is informed by evidence and the expert opinions of doctors, researchers, front-line workers and legal professionals.

“I’m proud that Labor will hold a drug summit, bringing together all the experts, and that everything will be on the table, including pill-testing.

“History shows a drug summit is the best way to achieve progressive drug law reform. It is the best way to work across the political divide and to ensure the community is involved in the solutions we need to save lives.”