Fear Factor

What the media won't say and the public won't hear

It is extremely distressing to learn the last moments of many lives were spent pleading for help over the phone while paramedics were fully equipped and on high-alert near by. Whether it be in our own back yard or at a music festival, nobody, young or old, should fear seeking help or medical attention, but sadly this is not always the case.

Many professional Australian organisers and paramedics have repeatedly reported this concern to police and councils. The police are adimant, they shouldn't have to become 'care-bears' and organisers are equally adimant, they shouldn't have to become police. And, on the face of it, both statements are completely valid.

Police are trained to deal with criminals. Paramedics are trained to deal with the ill or injured. And organisers are in the business of entertaining guests. They each provide very separate services to the community, with very separate duties of care and they should stay that way.

However, they also share a common duty to reduce harm.

Pill Testing

While it is widely agreed among health professionals and those who have lost loved ones that pill-testing should be implemented as a harm-minimization strategy, it is highly unlikely to reduce harm and more likely to shift it.

Sure, the individual may choose not to take a faulty pill and, true, one life may be saved however, there are wider consequences to take into account.

One such consideration might be: out of sense of duty the individual may be further inclined to let all their friends know the drug is unsafe, and all those friends may be inclined to let their friends know and so on. And many may be inclined to take these faulty drugs back to the dealers (who are not exactly known to be invested in public health or safety) to confront them or demand a refund.

Now, not only is the source of the information in grave danger, but so are a multitude of others. In this scenario, the harzards have simply been shifted to include violence.

On the flip-side: a group of friends may not be able to source any drugs, more often than not only one or two of them 'knows somebody-who-knows-somebody'. So, one friend goes off to buy the entire group a pill each, with no way of knowing what they're buying.

Then later another friend has their pill tested and, before you know it, they're not a group of friends anymore - they're an angry mob! Again, the harzard has simply been shifted.

Until these tests can fit inside pockets and are freely available, they're not realistically going to be used during the purchase phase and, for the concept to work, that is the phase which will reduce the most harm. Only then can all the perceivable hazards be restricted to just the drug-dealer and the purchaser.

Amnesty Bins

Inarguably, festivals have proved, time and again, to be a successful collaborative between authorities and organisers in apprehending drug-dealers and taking dangerous drugs off the street. The addition of amnesty bins need not change this objectivity since Police would still have access to guests arriving and departing to carry on with their usual practices and procedures.

Many other countries have demonstrated the life-saving success of providing amnesty bins at outdoor events, where guests are encouraged to voluntarily dispose of illicit substances rather than involuntarily overdosing due to fear. Those countries did not diminish their tough-stance on drugs, they still enforce the same drug-laws that we do.

The NSW Premier Mike Baird demands organisers to come up with a workable strategy and they have, they're even willing to pay for the program to be implemented at their events.

#safety #harmreduction #police #paramedics #festivals #organisers #drugs