Meth jab ‘rubbish’
POLICE have promptly shut down speculation spreading among this year’s Schoolies cohort that graduates are being injected with methamphetamine at beach parties.
A spokesperson said the Schoolies rumour was “100 per cent untrue” and believed it originated on social media.
Police said the speculation may have been sparked by Travis Scott’s Astroworld tragedy in Houston, Texas, in which partygoers involved in an alleged mass drug-spiking spree caused a crowd surge that killed 10 people.
Gold Coast Health Emergency Department specialist Dr Jeffrey Hooper said there were no presentations to the Emergency Treatment Centre in Surfers Paradise to “indicate any truth” to the rumour.
Gold Coast Schoolies Advisory Group chair Mark Reaburn said: “Our Safer Schoolies Support Team volunteers have been exceptional over the past 24 hours, reassuring the school leavers that there is no truth or evidence to support this rumour whatsoever.” Schoolies student Richie George said he caught wind of the rumour through mutual friends and believed the word-of-mouth speculation was “widespread among those who attended the beach parties”.
“We also heard there were kids coming out of the beach parties in wheelchairs after being injected,” he said.
“It’s scary to think this could be happening here at Schoolies. But, personally, none of us have directly witnessed anything as we’ve only been to one beach party.”
Another partygoer, Kevin O’Brien, said people were spreading stories about “people being crowd-trampled” at the opening night beach party.
“Me and my friends think all these rumours aren’t true otherwise the parties and Schoolies would have been shut down,” he said.
Billy Cross, of Cross Promotions, said it took only “one idiot to ruin the spirit of Schoolies”.
He said he had not heard the injection rumour and had “no idea” about the origins of “such a ridiculous story”.
Queensland Ambulance paramedics assessed 43 patients in the Schoolies Emergency Treatment Centre on the fourth day of celebrations.
Of those, five patients required further assessment at hospital. A further three patients were transported from the event precinct directly to hospital.
Police are in the midst of a “toolies” crackdown, with 68 arrests made since Saturday. To date, 12 registered Schoolies students have been arrested for a variety of street offences including public nuisance.