MDMA-using NSW MP wants no sniffer dogs

Sniffer dogs and high-visibility policing at music festivals are making drug-taking youth make riskier choices, a NSW Greens MP who has admitted to taking ecstasy, says.

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Sniffer dogs and high-visibility policing at music festivals are making drug-taking youth make riskier choices, a NSW Greens MP says.

Cate Faehrmann, who today admitted she has taken ecstasy or MDMA occasionally since her 20s, has taken aim at the state government’s zero-tolerance approach to illicit drug use.

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The Greens MP, 48, says policing and sniffer dogs weren’t stopping people from bringing drugs into festivals but led to people taking more than one MDMA pill or cap at once before entering the festival.

“They do this to avoid detection from sniffer dogs,” she wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald today.

“It’s not rocket science, then, to draw the conclusion that sniffer dogs are putting young people’s lives at risk.

“Being honest about illegal drugs also means we would manage their risks in proportion to the risks posed by other drugs.”

Five young people who have lost their lives at festivals.

The state upper house crossbencher took aim at NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian for saying “there is no such thing as a safe illegal drug”

“When the millions of Australians - including every third or fourth person between the ages of 20 and 29 who have used cannabis, ecstasy or cocaine over the past twelve months - hear the Premier’s message ... they wonder what planet she is living on,” Ms Faehrmann said.

But this morning, the Premier was remaining firm on her stance to avoid pill testing at NSW festivals.

“You know what all of us have to own up and say, ‘What is the reason for the deaths?Let’s stop the deaths’,” she said on Nova’s Fitzy and Wippa Show this morning.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is standing firm on her stance to avoid pill testing.

“And at this point in time, if we go into pill testing, I worry and it scares the heck out of me, that more people will die because they think the pill is safe, they’ll take it and give it to their friends and it might be safe for them and they’ll give it to one of their mates and one of their mates dies. That to me is not an acceptable situation.”

“It’s not shown to make things any safer.”

According to the Ms Berejiklian, partygoers had to sign a “death” waiver before their pills were tested during an earlier Australian trial.

Originally published as MDMA-using NSW MP wants no sniffer dogs