NSW coroner’s draft music festival recommendations include ‘pill testing and scrapping sniffer dogs’

Cops’ approach to drugs could change dramatically after a leaked report into musical festival deaths made some radical recommendations.

Sniffer dogs could be scrapped, pill testing could be implemented and the use of drugs could be decriminalised in NSW if draft recommendations from an inquest into deaths at music festivals are adopted.

The Daily Telegraph has received a leaked document outlining 40 draft recommendations made by Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame after overseeing an inquest into the deaths of six young people at music festivals between December 2017 and January 2019.

Anti-drug campaigners and politicians were quick to reject the recommendations after publication of the document yesterday, which has already been sent to NSW government departments and police.

The leaked draft recommendations call for allowing pill testing at festivals and asked the Government to consider decriminalising personal use of drugs “as a mechanism to reduce the harm caused by drug use”.

It also recommends police consider “redefining illicit drugs as primarily health and social issue rather than primarily a law enforcement issue”.

A NSW Coroners Court spokesperson told news.com.au: “The findings will be handed down on November 8, 2019. The recommendations have not been finalised.”

In a statement yesterday afternoon, Drug Free Australia spokesman Gary Christian said the group “condemned the recommendations as misguided”.

Coroner Harriet Grahame (centre) at Splendour in the Grass in NSW. Picture: Regi Varghese/AAP

The coroner observed a pill-testing demonstration at Splendour in the Grass music festival in Byron Bay in July and was accompanied by Jennie Ross-King.

Her daughter, Alex Ross-King, 19, died after ingesting multiple MDMA pills ahead of the FOMO festival earlier this year that the inquest heard was “to avoid the risk of detection”.

Ms Ross-King told The Sydney Morning Heraldshe thought the draft recommendations were “great”.

“They’re very comprehensive and common sense,” she said yesterday.

“From everything we heard, it’s based on the facts, the evidence, the information that was brought to the coroner. I think we have been listened to with our concerns.”

Her daughter’s death was one of six being considered by the inquest, along with Diana Nguyen, Joseph Pham, Callum Brosnan, Joshua Tam and Nathan Tran who were all aged between 18 and 23 and also died after ingesting illicit drugs at NSW music festivals.

Alex Ross-King.

Callum Brosnan.

Joshua Tam.

NSW frontbencher Andrew Constance maintains pill testing is not the solution to the spate of deaths and said nothing could guarantee the safety of illicit drugs.

“If the pure form of the drug is tested and found not to be laced and people still take it, they can still lose their life,” he told reporters in Sydney yesterday.

“What we’re seeing is young people at these festivals … dehydrated, overdosing, and they’re losing their lives. So I don’t see pill testing as the answer.”

NSW frontbencher Sarah Mitchell suggested pill testing could create additional safety problems.

“Pill testing might lead people to have a false sense of security when it comes to using drugs and it’s risky,” Ms Mitchell told reporters.

RELATED: Young man’s final moments after festival drug overdose

Joseph Pham.

Diana Nguyen.

NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann said the recommendations “appear to confirm that the Government’s zero tolerance approach is doing nothing to save lives”.

“No government in the world has been able to stop people taking drugs,” she said in a statement.

“More and more countries are recognising that the war on drugs has been a colossal failure and are adopting harm-reduction measures and saving lives.”

Nathan Tran.

On Channel 9’s Today show yesterday, federal Labor MP Tanya Plibersek said she believed “we have to proceed very cautiously” with these debates and should listen to experts.

“To the doctors, and to emergency services personnel, to police and of course to parents,” she said.

“There are sadly too many parents who have lost their children in this way. We need to hear their voices in this debate as well.”

Ms Plibersek said it was correct that “you can’t safely take drugs” and she supported the efforts of police to disrupt criminal trade in drugs.

“Something that’s made in a bikie’s bathroom isn’t likely to be good for you,” she said.

“But I think we have to take a sensible look at the coroner’s recommendations because as well as policing, (we) need to look at health interventions that keep people alive.”

Parents Jennie Ross-King, Julie and John Tam address the media. Picture: Peter Rae/AAP

Jennie Ross-King (second row, third from left) and Coroner Harriet Grahame (front row, second from left) at the pill-testing demonstration. Picture: Regi Varghese/AAP

Fellow guest, Nationals deputy leader Bridget McKenzie acknowledged it was a tragedy when any young person died, especially while they were on a day out or enjoying music with mates.

“There is a reason drugs are illegal, it is because they do you great harm,” she said on Today.

“Obviously, this is a matter for the coroner and the NSW Government, but we can’t — my personal belief is — we can’t have places in our community where the law doesn’t apply.

“And making sure that young people, in particular, can’t be taking drugs and therefore having those devastating effects and losing their life needs to be something we need to ensure can’t happen.”

Senator McKenzie said the NSW Government, as it considers the coroner’s draft recommendations and findings, needed to make the decision “in the best interests of the community” going forward.

Matthew King, the father of Alex King, embraces Cornelius Brosnan, the father of Callum Brosnan, outside the NSW Coroners Court in September. Picture: Peter Rae/AAP

Kevin Morton, acting president of the Police Association of New South Wales (PANSW), told news.com.au his organisation was reserving any substantive comments until the findings were public.

But he said the association’s primary concern throughout the inquest had been “that our members — who are simply enforcing the law and responsibly conducting reasonable policing duties at festivals — should not be caught up in a form of baseless and biased blame game”.

He said PANSW would be “extremely concerned” if officers “maintaining and ensuring public safety” were criticised any further for duties such as conducting strip-searches at festivals.

— with AAP