Party turns to pot for one act
A GROOVIN the Moo performer had a trip to Townsville she won’t soon forget after spending the night locked up for throwing a drink at a security guard in Flinders St.
American singer Shakira Marshall, 32, who performed at Groovin The Moo with Australian electronic act PNAU, was arrested in Flinders St after throwing the drink. When she was taken back to the watch- house and searched, she was found to have a small amount of cannabis on her.
Marshall, who sang on PNAU’s hit single Chameleon, was charged with possession of a dangerous drug, disorderly conduct, obstruct police and public nuisance. She appeared in Townsville Magistrates Court yesterday and was fined $ 600, with no conviction recorded.
Detectives from the Townsville Drug Squad were kept busy on Sunday, arresting eight people outside the festival, including a 16- year- old boy allegedly found in possession of MDMA.
Just under 100 capsules and pills of MDMA and a small quantity of ice were found after the arrests of eight people aged 16 to 30 charged with possession of a dangerous drug and supplying.
For the second year running the female toilets at the festival were clogged with discarded condoms used by women to smuggle drugs inside the precinct.
Drug squad officer- in- charge Detective Senior Sergeant Mick Walker said police focused on arresting people before they got into the festival.
“We arrested eight people on 11 charges, ending up with 85 MDMA capsules, 11 MDMA pills and a small quantity of ice,” Sen- Sgt Walker said. “There will be further people charged after we complete some forensic analysis. People are going to extreme lengths to hide drugs on their person and if these things break they have the potential to go into toxic shock. Why put yourself in that position just for the perception of having a good time at a music festival?”
Queensland Ambulance Service acting communications manager Lara Jedyn said paramedics transported more people to hospital from outside the venue than from inside, taking under 20 people throughout the festival.
“This year was a lot better than last year. We did half the number of transports up to the hospital,” Ms Jedyn said.
“A lot of the work was before the crowd got in, people had preloaded or taken too much.
“Drug and alcohol intoxication were the main calls but there was no serious incident this year that ended up in ICU.”
Figures on drug arrests inside the venue were not available yesterday.