Industry & ResearchTop Stories
As festival deaths pile up, experts plead for pill testing
As summer peaks, so does the incidence of music festivals; a rite of passage for many young Australians. Yet increasingly, these frivolous events are tinged with tragedy. Over the weekend, 19 year-old Alex Ross-King died at FOMO Festival – the fifth drug-related festival death in the country in six months.
Please login below to view content or subscribe now.
The technology isn’t there. We cannot quickly and accurate measure the ENTIRE make-up of the pill (especially without destroying it). Further, who is to know how the composition would affect the user, with their unique genetic make up?
Only one thing is for certain – the Government will get sued as soon as a precious child overdoses from a tested pill. If someone is willing to pay a lot of money to a complete stranger for a totally unknown pill KNOWING the repercussions and avoiding risk mitigation techniques (staying with friends, trying a small dosage first, not being dehydrated and drunk) then what more could the Government do to protect them?
Further, there will be negative outcomes when pills are flagged after testing, i.e. on selling, consuming it regardless (see my point about historic flawed decision making above) and violent retribution to the seller.