Late on Saturday night, as dance music blazed at Sydney Olympic Park, a small team of medical experts realised they had a “nightmare scenario” on their hands.
A raver at the HTID festival was in need of help. They’d taken what they believed to be the popular party drug MDMA. But their symptoms were serious and not typically associated with the drug. When they responded to naloxone – a medication designed to rapidly reverse the impacts of opioids – the specialists knew they had to act fast.
The person had unknowingly taken a form of nitazene, which is a strong synthetic opioid more dangerous than fentanyl and heroin. Even a small dose can cause overdose or death. The experts feared festivalgoers might inadvertently take a large dose, thinking it was MDMA.
The drug circulating among the crowd was a pink pill with the words “Red Bull” pressed into it. Days later New South Wales Health linked the same pill to three hospitalisations, with one person treated in the intensive care unit. All three had taken half the pill. Subsequent tests showed it contained no MDMA at all.
The medical experts warned DanceWize NSW – a group of volunteers raising awareness about drug safety who were at the festival – about what was circulating. The group quickly made sure police and festival organisers realised lives were at stake.
At 10.30pm the festival organisers cut the music and 21,000 people stopped dancing. On centre stage, an organiser and regular DJ at HTID events told the crowd what they knew.
“We have a quick announcement: we have been advised here is a substance in the form of a red bull, pink pill, that has been flagged by medical specialists as having serious adverse affects,” the DJ known as Weaver said.
“If you are feeling unwell, please seek medical assistance. Everybody, let’s finish this party friendly and have a great night.”
Before the announcement was read out, the festival organiser, DanceWize, and the medical team workshopped the message on a mobile phone to make sure it was clear, direct and succinct.
Nitazene overdose symptoms are often unpredictable but include a loss of consciousness, skin turning blue or grey, snoring, drowsiness and pinpoint pupils. Alcohol can also increase the risk of overdose.
The drug was detected after heroin overdoses on the NSW Central Coast in late December. It was also detected in black market vape juice, which was linked to three overdoses and a death last year.
Mary Harrod, the chief executive of NSW Users and Aids Association, which runs the DanceWize program, said the announcement had saved lives and was a turning point in festival management that should be celebrated.
“After the announcement, a number of people reported that they had the ‘Red Bull’ tablets but would dispose of them,” Harrod said. “It is an example of a highly effective, cooperative response that prevented further harm with no fatalities on the night.”
Tim Powell from DanceWize, who was at the festival, said the severity of medical advice “set off alarm bells” that forced organisers to “do something completely new” to protect the crowd.
“For a non-opioid user, which is most festivalgoers, to have something like a nitazene which is incredibly potent, is a nightmare scenario,” Powell said.
“To be so direct, to tell them what the pill was and what to do, was really bold and the right thing to do. I have a lot of respect for the organisers.”
NSW police declined to comment.
Harrod said the unknown presence of the drug demonstrated the need for pill testing. She praised the NSW government for issuing an alert about the dangerous drug but said this was only possible after people had overdosed.
“These alerts most often come after a harm has occurred either by someone requiring emergency assistance like the other night or a tragic death,” Harrod said.
“The evidence is now rock-solid for the effectiveness of these services, with one open in the ACT and services soon to be established in Queensland. The arguments against drug checking put forward by the previous and current government are looking increasingly weak.”
Chris Gough, chief executive of the nation’s only pill-testing venue in Canberra, said the detection of nitazenes in pills sold as MDMA showed the need for similar services in other states.
“In this case, where a nitazene has been sold as MDMA and therefore people are completely unprepared and potentially opioid naive, the risk of overdose is extreme,” said Gough, who is the executive director of the Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation and Advocacy.
