Those who managed to catch Dying To Dance, the Four Corners report by Gold Walkley award-winning reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna which investigated Australia’s party-drug scene, last night would’ve seen one of the best cases for pill-testing ever put forth.
Meldrum-Hanna’s report was filmed over the most recent summer music festival season — one of the deadliest on record — and saw her going on ride-alongs with drug users and dealers as well as consulting with drug experts and law enforcement like the former head of the AFP.
And what was pretty much everybody’s conclusion? Australia’s drug war is failing, miserably. Sniffer dogs are ineffective and dangerous, ecstasy is purer than ever, and arrests of drug users are spiking as arrest of dealers have remained stagnant for years.
Whilst it’s unlikely the war on drugs will end any time soon, Dying To Dance, like 60 Minutes‘ acclaimed report from last year, put forth a strong case to at least arm young drug users with the means to know what they’re taking, i.e. pill testing.
“We should be doing everything we can to ensure that if kids do experiment in this way when they’re young, they’re going to survive the experience,” a former senior police officer tells Meldrum-Hanna in the program, which you can view in full via ABC iView here.
