Drug testing is a question of safety
In 1987, confronted by the Aids crisis, the New Zealand government allowed pharmacies and exchanges to supply needles and syringes to intravenous drug users. Within a year, needle exchanges were running in Auckland, Christchurch, Palmerston North, Wellington and Dunedin.
New Zealand was a pioneer in the field and health experts say the exchange scheme is one reason we had one of the world’s lowest rates of HIV among intravenous drug
users. Offering clean needles to drug users was not an endorsement of their use of illegal drugs. Then health minister Michael Bassett recognised there was no ‘‘perfect solution’’. Instead, needle exchanges were a triumph of pragmatism.
Similar thinking drives the introduction of drug testing at dance parties and music festivals. People will take drugs regardless of the law – whether alcohol, cannabis, MDMA or some substance that purports to be MDMA – so we should endeavour to make it safe where possible.
As long as there have been illegal drugs, there have been warnings, such is the inevitable unreliability of substances distributed through criminal networks. Older readers will think of the film of the Woodstock festival in 1969, where an announcement over the PA was that ‘‘the brown acid that is circulating around us is not specifically too good’’.
Some drugs that could have been taken at the Rhythm and Vines event near Gisborne on Monday were not specifically too good, either. Police used a Customs spectrometer to identify that seized pills contained pesticides, industrial paint compounds, antibiotics and even paracetamol. Others were merely sugar and food colouring, sold as MDMA.
Thankfully, no-one at the festival needed hospital attention, although there were some adverse drug reactions, according to medical staff.
Partygoers in Australia were less lucky. A 22-year-old Brisbane man died and two other people fell ill after taking an unknown substance at a music festival north of Sydney in December. It follows three other recent deaths at Australian festivals. While both government and police have argued greater law enforcement resources are needed, Australia’s Green Party is isolated in calling for the introduction of drug testing in New South Wales.
In New Zealand, Police Minister Stuart Nash said he would like to see drug testing at festivals. ‘‘It saves lives, it saves hospitalisations. It’s actually the right thing to do. And it’s dealing with the reality in which we find ourselves.’’
As New Zealand’s drug policy moves from a criminal approach to a health approach, the merits of being able to reliably and legally test substances that could put otherwise law-abiding people in hospital or worse seem obvious.
It is time to put moral qualms to one side and make it happen.