Australian harm reduction groups call for nationwide pill testing after suspected festival MDMA overdoses
Eight of the nine hospitalised attendees of this past weekend's Hardmission festival were put into medically induced comas and given breathing tubes
Australian harm reduction organisations are urging the government to support national pill-testing programmes after nine people were hospitalised from presumed overdoses at Melbourne festival Hardmission this past weekend.
Eight of the nine hospitalised festivalgoers were put into medically induced comas and given breathing tubes due to suffering suspected MDMA overdoses at the first edition of the festival on 6th January, the Guardian reports. Two people have been released from hospital, while three are still in critical condition.
Social justice advocates Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA), non-profit Uniting NSW ACT and drug-checking service Pill Testing Australia are among the groups calling on Australian state governments to implement and standardise pill testing, which has been proven to improve the safety of festival attendees according to research by The Loop and University of Liverpool.
"Human lives matter more than failed prohibitionist drug policies", ALA criminal justice spokesperson Greg Barns SC said. "Simply exhorting young people to ‘say no to drugs’ does not work and the government needs to listen to health experts on this issue."
Political parties the Victorian Greens, Legalise Cannabis and the Animal Justice parties, who have written the Pill Testing Pilot for Drug Harm Reduction Bill currently before Parliament, also shared a joint statement in support of the harm reduction practice. "The three cross-bench parties say that while Labor continues to refuse to adopt pill testing, more and more young people will be put at greater risk of overdose and drug-related death", their statement reads.
Ahead of the festival, Hardmission Australia previously shared a graphic with "harm minimization guidelines" and its partnership with peer-based harm reduction programme DanceWize NSW. At time of writing, the festival has not commented on the hospitalisations publicly.
In a statement shared with Mixmag, Victoria Police said: “Victoria Police are investigating reports a number of people were taken to hospital seriously unwell while attending a music festival in Flemington Saturday evening.
“Police were not aware of any critical health incidents during the event however are now making enquiries and an investigation has commenced.”
Governments around the world have been slow to adopt harm-reduction policies. Revisit Ed Gillett's 2021 report on the UK's lacking drug policies and what progressive approaches should be taken.
DJ Mag has approached Hardmission Festival for a comment.
