Drug warning ahead of Sydney’s Mardi Gras festival

Mardi Gras festival organisers have warned revellers to be wary of cocaine and amphetamines laced with a deadly opiate.

Five people overdosed in Sydney between December and February when they took drugs laces with fentanyl. Picture: Supplied

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival organisers have warned revellers to be wary of cocaine and amphetamines laced with a deadly opiate.

It comes after five people overdosed in Sydney between December and February when they took drugs substituted or spiked with fentanyl.

Fentanyl is an opiate which is 50 to 100 times more concentrated than morphine and can quickly interfere with the user’s ability to breathe.

Festival organisers said they were aware of the issue and would be issuing statements “to our audiences and the wider LGBTQI community ahead of Saturday.”

“The safety and wellbeing of our patrons is at the forefront of every planning decision, and we have an extensive medical plan that includes close to 100 medical staff on board for the night, ACON Rovers to assist drug affected patrons as well as designated quite spaces within the Party precinct for those that need a place to relax,” a spokesman said.

“We also work very closely with NSW Police, NSW Health, Ambulance NSW and our medical team to develop comprehensive risk management plans and to ensure these are executed on the night.”

Poisons Information Centre medical director Andrew Dawson said the recent spate of near-misses were “pretty worrying”.

“Our patients thought they were buying methamphetamine and cocaine,” Professor Dawson said.

“NSW Health has been working up with the people in the Mardi Gras festival to make them aware of this problem and to make certain there are appropriate treatments available.”

But Professor Dawson, who is also the director of clinical toxicology at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, said it was concerning that they didn’t know where the contamination was coming from.

“Our concern at RPA is that we had four cases within a few kilometres of each other which suggests it's a single source

“We don’t really know, if this is just a single supplier or indeed this is going to come up with multiple suppliers.”

He said it was clear those who had overdosed did not know they were taking fentanyl, and issued a warning to Mardi Gras attendees.

“People who go into a toilet could collapse with no witnesses and that could be really bad, if people are going to use drugs they need friends around to make sure there’s no problems,” he said.

“This is about harm minimisation, people clearly choose to use recreational drugs, they’re going to need to modify their habits.”

He said fentanyl was difficult to treat, requiring significantly larger doses of anti-opioid Naloxone, also known as Narcan, to treat.

“You often require larger doses of Narcan and repeated doses and you have a high risk of relapsing you’re going to need higher doses,” he said.

“Most patients (who overdose on heroin) might wake up with 0.4mg of Narcan, but I’ve had patients (who overdosed on fentanyl) where we’ve had to give them higher doses to wake up and then 1.2mg of Narcan an hour for a number of hours to keep them up.”

Professor Dawson said New York City had experienced a significant issue with fentanyl contaminated cocaine in 2017, which saw overdose deaths spike by more than 50 per cent.

Professor Dawson said NSW Health would be sending health teams to support Mardi Gras and paramedics would likely be issued additional doses of Narcan.

NSW Ambulance said 11 additional crews will be deployed on top of normal crew numbers for the parade, as well as special operations paramedics, and two dedicated supervisors at each end of the parade.