Image: Premier Chris Minns
by GRACE JOHNSON
Premier Chris Minns is being urged to allow pill testing at events following the deaths of two young men at a music festival last weekend.
The cause of the deaths have not been confirmed, but it is suspected that the men, aged 21 and 26, took drugs before they died.
Since then, a 23-year-old man has been charged for supplying a prohibited drug causing death. He appeared before Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday and has been refused bail. He will appear again before court on November 30.
The Knockout Outdoor music festival took place last weekend at Sydney Showground in the western suburbs. Since then, calls are increasing for the government to introduce pill testing at events in the state. However, the premier’s response has been reluctant.
“It’s not simply the case that people are taking compromised drugs. And a pill testing regime would allow festival goers to understand that,” said Mr Minns.
He emphasised that there is no safe drug-taking.
“If I thought that this was a silver bullet that would solve deaths at festivals, of course I will take it,” he continued.
Jennifer Ross-King, the mother of a teenager who died from an MDMA overdose in 2019, made a plea to the government to introduce pill testing and listen to the experts.
“The government needs to listen to the experts,” she said. “Every time I hear a politician speak something ridiculous comes out of their mouth. They are not experts. They are politicians. They need to listen.”
The Minns government plans to hold a drug summit next year, but Ms Ross-King, along with experts and advocates, urge that harm reduction strategies be implemented this summer.
A coroner recommended in 2019 that pill testing be introduced and sniffer dogs be scrapped, following the drug-related deaths of six young people at music festivals over two summers. This was ruled out by then-premier Gladys Berejiklian, despite the coroner’s evidence that pill testing would bring about change.
The premier stated he will look at jurisdictions in other states before deciding on whether to introduce pill testing.
“I’d have made the decision yesterday, if it was the single decision that government could take to save lives, but at the end of the day, this is risky. It’s risky if you take ecstasy at a festival, particularly on a summer day.”
