Picture yourself in regional Victoria. You’re nestled within the rugged bushes and cascading mountains of the Grampians National Park, located approximately 250 kilometres west of Melbourne, and some 1,050 kilometres south-west of your home in Sydney. You, and 18,000 others have arrived in antsy anticipation for four full days of dancing, grooving and bopping to some of your favourite DJs in the wilderness. Temperatures are dabbling up to 39 degrees; and the atmosphere feels tribalistic. Everyone is dressed in similar renditions of the same outfit — think jorts, gorp-core, and headscarf.
The warmth is now overbearing, dirt has gathered underneath your fingernails, and gritty streaks of dust and sweat paint over your body. Extreme fire warnings, whispers of a possible death, and distant rumbles of an overpassing rescue helicopter also starting to waft through the tense, dry air. But it’s too hot to think, and there’s no reception to fact-check either; so you, under the spotty shade of the gazebo tent, drift in and out of a restless slumber, cradled by the sweltering heat of the summer and the rigidness of the nylon, fold-out chair beneath you.
After a hasty decision made by organisers, the festival is cancelled last minute. You leave feeling disgruntled, hazy and unsatisfied. This was my experience at this year’s Pitch Music and Arts Festival.
Festivals, by their nature, are chaotic, lending themselves to the possibility of a range of unforeseen circumstances. A mixture of drugs, alcohol, dehydration, heat and overexertion work to create a potent, and sometimes fatal combination. Indeed, it was later confirmed that a 23-year-old attendee did pass away. He was local, and his story joins a sobering list of similar tragedies, including the deaths of two young men at Sydney’s Knockout Outdoor festival in September last year. Just two months ago, nine people were left hospitalised with three remaining in critical condition after suspected overdoses at another Melbourne music festival.
A study led by Associate Professor Jennifer Schumann at Monash University’s Department of Forensic Medicine uncovered more than 60 drug-related deaths at concerts and festivals in Australia between the years 2000 and 2019. These 64 deaths were largely preventable. In fact, some of the greatest risks associated with illicit drug use arise simply “because they are illegal”, Associate Professor Nicole Lee and Professor Alison Ritter write for the National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre. This means that first, there is a lack of education, awareness and support around safe drug use; and second, methods of illegal drug production largely go unregulated in underground black markets, allowing drugs to be adulterated and cut with other substances and thereby increasing the risk of fatal outcomes.
This is corroborated by Schumann’s study which finds that the most common cause of drug-related deaths was MDMA toxicity, meaning MDMA was found at much higher concentrations than the usual threshold associated with overdoses. Schumann highlights the opportunity to implement harm minimisation strategies including drug checking services. This would then inform users of higher potencies and allow them to make better decisions, contributing to a reduction in overall mortality.
Yet, the government has continued to maintain a “war on drugs” approach which has proven to be harmful and sorely unproductive, time and time again. For example, an inquest conducted by Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame into the deaths of six young people at music festivals — including that of 19-year-old Jennie Ross-King — found that high-visibility policing tactics such as drug dogs and strip searches increased, rather than decreased the risk and harm associated with drugs. Further, she found no evidence to suggest such tactics were effective in reducing overall drug use or harm at all. Grahame again recommended drug-checking, stating it is “simply an evidence-based harm-reduction strategy that should be trialled as soon as possible in NSW”.
Of course, this was aptly shut down by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian at the time, citing it would give a “green light” to users taking substances, despite evidence showing decriminalisation and harm-minimisation strategies would not increase drug use — only lessen the overwhelming burden and cost of drug-related crimes on the criminal justice system. Her response, instead, to “increase penalties for people supplying these illegal substances to a maximum of 20 years” again underscores a misguided emphasis on punitively condoning drug offences rather than mitigating the harm that continues to occur.
Government spending is also heavily skewed towards punishment. 66% of $1.7 billion spent towards law enforcement against illicit drugs, compared to just 9% on prevention and 2% on harm reduction. Current NSW Premier Chris Minns peddles a similar, overly-simplistic approach to drugs of “just say no” that relies on a fear-based campaign that has also shown to be ineffective in reducing drug use, according to Grahame’s inquest.
The tragic loss of young lives at a festival should not make us complacent, especially when those fatalities arise from preventable drug risks. People are taking drugs, and people will most likely continue to take drugs in the future. To actively dismiss evidence-based strategies that have the potential to save young lives in favour of a futile “law and order” approach presents as a huge disservice to the many young people who may be at risk, as well as the many young people who lost their lives before it. The ongoing “war on drugs” ultimately wages its fiercest battles against our youth.
