The coronal inquest into the spate of drug-related deaths at NSW music festivals continues to reveal eye opening information about the drug taking climate that, ultimately, led to the deaths of 6 people between December 2017 to January 2019, none older than 23.
On Monday, NSW Ministry of Health presented evidence to the inquest suggesting between 70-90% of young people at NSW festivals have taken illicit substances, with MDMA being the most popular followed by Ketamine and Cocaine.
The number is expected to grow as the inquest moves on with Counsel assisting the coroner, Dr Peggy Dwyer stating to the inquest, “I expect that Your Honour will read in a statement from … the NSW Users and Aids Association that there is anecdotal evidence suggesting that up to 95 cent of young festival patrons use illicit substances.”
As per SMH, The inquest has also learnt of the increasing trend of ‘double dropping’ when festival goers ingest two pills at once often to avoid detection by Police upon entering festival grounds.
“Almost half of Australian respondents who used ecstasy pills reported double dropping at the last festival they attended,” Dr Dwyer said.
This is believed to be the situation surrounding the death of 19-year-old Alex Ross-King, picture above, who told friends she had ‘double droped’ to avoid detection by police while walking in to FOMO Festival in Parramatta Park.
A link has also been drawn to the extreme heat and some of the MDMA-related deaths. The inquiry heard that this results in hyperthermia, a condition where the body temperature increases to extreme levels, which was the cause of death for many of the youths in discussion.
One of the key points of interest for the inquiry is harm-prevention. Some of the prevention measures discussed so far include fans to combat the increasing heat and special “chill-out” zones with free bottles of water and electrolyte drinks. Naturally, Pill-testing is expected to be a big topic for the inquest.
The respondent data, gathered through speaking with festival attendants, is a strong argument against the NSW governments current stance of ‘Just say no’ with that argument being that, well, it clearly doesn’t work.
These were sentiments shared by the parents of 22-year-old Joshua Tam, who passed away after consuming MDMA at Lost Paradise festival, telling the inquest that despite of the State Governments stance, drug taking in young people won’t “magically disappear”.
“Are we really a society with such little care for each other that we are happy to stand by and wait for them to die?” Julia Tam said, “The reality is that we will continue to lose more of our youth if we don’t change our approach to harm minimisation.”
As well as 19-year-old Ross-King and 22-year-old Tam, the inquest is also considering the deaths of Callum Brosnan, 19, Diana Nguyen, 21, Joseph Pham, 23 and Nathan Tran, 18.
The inquest continues this week.
