The suspected MDMA overdoses at a Melbourne music festival that left eight young people in medically induced comas over the weekend has sparked renewed calls for nationwide pill-testing programs.
Harm reduction and social justice advocates, and the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA), were among those urging state governments to legalise pill-testing, saying the scale of the overdoses highlight the urgency of the issue.
Paramedics at the Hardmission electronic music festival, held at the Flemington racecourse on Saturday, transported nine festivalgoers to hospitals across Melbourne.
Ambulance Victoria confirmed eight people were placed in comas with breathing tubes in their throats. Of the nine admitted patients, Guardian Australia understands three remain in a critical condition, one is in a serious condition, one in a serious but stable condition and one is stable. Two have been discharged from hospital.
Greg Barns SC, the criminal justice spokesperson at the ALA, urged the Victorian government to implement drug testing to help keep young people safe.
“Human lives matter more than failed prohibitionist drug policies,” he 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.”
Social justice non-profit Uniting NSW ACT called on the Minns government to implement pill-testing after the suspected overdoses in Melbourne.
The Victorian Ambulance Union’s secretary, Danny Hill said the patients at the festival were “really sick”.
“You had patients with high temperatures – some over 41 degrees and seizure activity. In order to be transported, [paramedics] have to do intervention that is normally left for patients suffering a head injury or a stroke,” he said.
Hill said it was unusual to have a high number of people affected at one event.
“I don’t think we’ve seen it for some years, if ever,” he said.
The patients were transported to the Sunshine, Royal Melbourne, Austin, Footscray and St Vincent’s hospitals.
Hill said he hoped Saturday’s event would prompt a rethink of pill testing in Victoria.
“These drugs are not made in batches of seven or eight tablets,” Hill said. “They’re made in batches of hundreds or thousands so there are many more of these deadly tablets out there.
Assoc Prof David Caldicott, the clinical lead at Pill Testing Australia, told the ABC on Monday that the organisation had offered to operate a free pilot program to any jurisdiction.
“We’ve learned a lot about the way we’ve done things in the ACT and we’d love to share that,” he said.
Victorian government frontbencher Steve Dimopoulos on Monday said the government had no plans to introduce pill testing.
“That’s not all there is to this space. We do a bunch of other work in relation to harm minimisation including DanceWize that was actually at the event,” he told reporters.
He said it was important not to jump to conclusions about the incident, as the state’s poisons information centre was investigating what occurred.
Dimopoulos said the government would be driven by the science regarding pill testing.
“We’re always open to having a look at innovative approaches that might assist the welfare and health of Victorians,” he said.
In a joint statement the Greens, Legalise Cannabis and the Animal Justice parties renewed calls for the government to establish pill testing across the state.
The ACT introduced drug-testing services in 2022 and the Queensland government announced a pill-testing trial last February.
The Victorian state coroner, John Cain, in September called for the government to introduce drug testing to reduce preventable drug overdose deaths.
The festival’s organiser has been contacted for comment.
A Victoria police spokesperson said it was investigating reports a number of people were taken to hospital “seriously unwell” .
• In Australia, the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline is at 1800 250 015; families and friends can seek help at Family Drug Support Australia at 1300 368 186. In the UK, Action on Addiction is available on 0300 330 0659. In the US, call or text SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 988
This article was amended on 8 January 2024 after Ambulance Victoria clarified that eight people were in induced comas, not seven.
