159 People At ‘Listen Out’ Were Arrested On Drug Charges, Weeks After Tragic Defqon.1 Deaths
Pill testing was not allowed at the festival.
Police arrested 159 festivalgoers at Sydney’s Listen Out for drug offences, two weeks after two died at Defqon.1 and NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian declared that the festival would never come back to the state.
The festival, which was held at Centennial Park on Saturday and starred artists such as A$AP Rocky, Noname, Petit Biscuit, Skrillex and Snakehips, had over 34,000 in attendance.
According to NSW Police, 154 people were charged with drug possession and another five were slapped with drug supply charges. Seven people were transported to hospital with drug related health issues.
“We conduct these operations because the wellbeing and safety of attendees is our number one priority,” said Superintendent Karen McCarthy, “Generally, festivalgoers were well behaved and enjoyed the event, however there appears to be a small section of the community that continues to possess and deal in illegal substances, despite our warnings.”
Police will have a strong presence at this weekend’s “Listen Out” music festival at Sydney’s Centennial Park as part of ongoing efforts to save lives and disrupt illegal drug dealers. https://t.co/Ykx6KKHRjU
— NSW Police (@nswpolice) September 27, 2018
Experts challenge whether only a small section of the community take drugs into the typical music festival. In one Australian study published this year, 73.4 percent of 642 music festival attendees surveyed said that they had used illicit drugs in the past 12 months.
And Will Tregoning, founder and director of drug harm reduction organisation Unharm, told Junkee last month that “we now know that at least half the people at an event like Defqon.1 will be illegally using drugs.”
On Thursday, NSW police announced that would have a strong presence at Listen Out with the aim of minimising drug use. Sniffer dogs were used at the event.
After two young festivalgoers died at Defqon.1 two weekends ago, premier Berejiklian ruled out the event’s return, and doubled down on her government’s position against pill testing at music festivals.
Pill testing involves setting up an amnesty area where attendees could have their illicit drugs tested to see what was in them, and whether there were any potentially lethal substances.
154 charged with drug possession at Listen Out festival. Seven taken to hospital for drugs. Toilets littered with condoms used to smuggle in drugs. But certainly no Defqon.1. pic.twitter.com/sDT9Vuu48q
— Jack Morphet (@JackMorphet) September 29, 2018
When pill testing had its first Australian trial at Canberra’s Groovin The Moo in April, only 43 percent of the drugs tested had the substances that patrons were expecting. Of 85 samples tested, two had substances that were potentially lethal.
18 percent indicated that they would discard the drugs they had, or were uncertain of what to do after the test results came in.
NSW Police are against pill testing. Labor does not have a national policy on the matter, and The Greens are in favour of it, and so is the Australian Medical Association.