After the organisers of the Stereosonic dance music festival publicly stated they would support introducing pill testing at their event, NSW Premier Mike Baird has gone ahead and put the kibosh on those plans.
As Fairfax reports, during a recent appearance on Channel Seven’s Sunrise Mr Baird reiterated his and the government’s position on pill testing at NSW festivals and argued for abstinence as the safest policy.
“What they are asking us to do is to allow illegal drugs,” he said. Mr Baird argued that allowing pill testing would effectively be condoning drug use (something any reasonable person wouldn’t mind if it meant saving lives).
“Don’t do it. That is the best form of safety you can do. Don’t take the pills and you’ll be fine,” Mr Baird said, killing any chance of seeing a pill testing trial at a major Australian music festival.
As ABC News reports, Stereosonic organisers Totem OneLove claimed in a statement that they would fully support pill testing at their festival provided it went through the right channels and government approvals.
“In principle pill testing would have our full support as long as all the key stakeholders sanctioned the initiative to ensure its effectiveness,” organisers wrote in a statement on the Totem OneLove website.
“We would strongly support any policies or initiatives that would minimise harm, reduce drug use and make events a safer environment for patrons.” However, organisers insisted it was contingent on government support.
Stereosonic was held over two weekends last year, with 25-year-old pharmacist Sylvia Choi and 19-year-old Stefan Woodward dying from suspected drug overdoses one week apart at the Sydney and Adelaide events, respectively.
Though Mr Baird described the deaths as being “laced in absolute tragedy for those family, their friends and the communities involved”, he was adamant that his position on a potentially live-saving program like pill testing would not waiver.
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Speaking recently to triple j’s Hack, John Wall of Fuzzy, the promoters behind Field Day and Listen Out festivals, said festival organisers have their hands tied when it comes to pill testing.
“It’s tricky,” Wall explained, “all of our events are held on government land, I think every single one of them [laughs].” Organisers are thus forced to play ball with the government to secure permissions and permits.
“We’ve got to see if there’s a way that we can do it and still get and maintain approval to run the event,” said Wall. “It’s something we’ve got to look into. Obviously it’s come up a number of times and in the past it hasn’t got to the government level.”
“It’s been the police saying they’re not gonna stand by and let it happen. This is a little bit different, so we’re going to be looking into whether there’s something we can do. We’d have to first check whether that meant the festival could get completely shut down on the spot.”
But Dr Alex Wodak, president of the Drug Law Reform Foundation, says he and a team of fellow doctors want to begin pill testing at music festivals in order to save the lives of young punters regardless of the government’s approval.
