Police voice must carry clout in drug law reforms
Nathan Tran was described as a “quiet young man”.
On the night he died, his behaviour was completely out of character. Offered a bottle of water by a security guard, he knocked it from the guard’s hands and spat in his face.
It took four police officers to hold the normally mildmannered 18-year-old down. They had to handcuff him as they brought him to a medical tent at the Knockout Circuz dance event in Sydney in December 2017.
An autopsy found MDMA toxicity as the cause of death.
Nathan’s story was one of six harrowing tales relayed, in excruciating detail, at a coronial inquest this month.
Painful stories were also aired about Diana Nguyen, Joseph Pham, Callum Brosnan, Joshua Tam and Alexandra Ross-King. All were intelligent young people, loved by their families, with bright futures. All died after consuming MDMA at music festivals.
Friends of some of the deceased told the inquest they underestimated the risks of
taking the drug. Nobody could possibly say the same again after hearing what happened to these promising young people, whose tragic ends are now very well known.
And yet, at Splendour in the Grass last weekend, police seized a record 2.8kg of illegal substances, much of it MDMA.
“In excess of 350 drug detections were recorded with more than 2.8kg of illicit drugs seized, predominantly MDMA tablets and cannabis,” police said in a statement.
There has been much talk in the media about the role of police at music festivals. Much of it has been inherently, unfairly negative.
While drug dealers are rarely, if ever, mentioned, police are somehow painted as villains.
In the lead-up to Splendour in the Grass, the NSW Government, alarmed by the recent spate of fatalities, decided to ramp up the police presence.
It was a decision decried by some campaigners.
Australian Drug Law Reform President Alex Wodak commented that “saturation policing with dogs at these types of events creates more risk”.
One of the arguments against a heavy police presence is that festival-goers panic when they see walls of blue, and quickly ingest whatever they are carrying.
The inquest into the six young people who died heard that one of them, 19-year-old Alex Ross-King, did precisely that. We know this happened. The evidence is sadly there.
What we cannot know for sure is if lives were saved at Byron at the weekend because 2.8kg of drugs did not enter young bodies. No report will ever prove it. But the police deserve enormous credit for taking so many poison pills out of circulation.
Our police have an enormously difficult job at these festivals. It’s not a task that any officer relishes.
But it means they have invaluable experience, making their voices well worth listening to. They are about the only people to regularly attend these events who are not either attendees or vendors. And they are deeply affected by what they see.
The evidence of Detective Chief Inspector Gus Viera to the coronial inquest, the senior officer at the event where Nathan Tran died, was compelling.
“As a father of two daughters I wouldn’t let them go (to festivals), I’m not a fan at all,” he said.
“I see no positive aspects for young people … they’re bad.”
Detective Chief Inspector Viera knows what he is talking about – he has policed 20 festivals.
In coming months the NSW Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame will deliver recommendations from the inquest into the deaths of the six young people.
There is significant pressure for some form of pill testing and many will be eager to know what she has to say on that matter.
Those in favour would also like to see policing greatly reduced. This column is no fan of either option.
There are other, less controversial, steps she could recommend.
In all cases, the deaths examined at the inquest all took place on hot days, some very hot, contributing to the overheating caused by MDMA intoxication.
Studies have shown very clearly that MDMA overdoses are more likely in hot settings.
The coroner might recommend that governments only licence festivals to take place in winter time.
In 19 years, there has never been a drug death at Splendour in the Grass. The fact it takes place in winter may be a factor.
Police should also be given powers to shut down poorlyorganised festivals when public safety is at risk, as Detective Chief Inspector Viera has proposed.
Where chaos reigns, as it clearly did at some of the events examined at the inquest, police should have the option of cutting them short.
They say hard cases make bad law. And by goodness, if you have read any of what was said at the inquest into the six recent deaths at music festivals, you’ll know these are very hard cases. It’s a wonder the families present can bear it.
There are some people in authority, most particularly NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who may soon come under enormous pressure to introduce bad laws as a result.
Change must happen, but only after carefully weighing the evidence. When doing so the views of the most impartial and experienced observers, the police officers who work to keep people safe at these festivals, should be given more weight than most.