Drug reform advocates are calling for action to press ahead with pill testing in New South Wales after the state’s health authorities issued an urgent warning about high-dose ecstasy tablets stamped with the word ‘Gucci’.
NSW Health issued the warning about the square, pinky-orange, high-dose MDMA tablets that were found to contain more than four times the average dose of other tablets in recent circulation.
The discovery of the pills comes as an estimated 30,000 party-goers prepare to attend Listen Out festival in Sydney this weekend, marking the start of the festival season.
Health minister Ryan Park said the batch was particularly dangerous and should be avoided.
“None of these pills are obviously safe in any form … but this is one that we’ve identified as particularly harmful,” he said.
“We are telling people very clearly: please be alert to this.”
NSW Poisons Information Centre medical director, Dr Darren Roberts, warned such tablets could cause severe agitation, raised body temperature, seizures, irregular heart rhythm and could lead to death.
“The health risks from MDMA are greatly increased if high amounts, including multiple doses, are consumed over a short period,” he said.
He warned hot environments could increase the risk of harm and urged revellers to take breaks from dancing, find shade and drink water to avoid overheating.
A coalition of advocacy groups and health and legal experts has signed an open letter calling on the premier to approve a drug-checking trial before the summer festival season.
The letter pointed to NSW’s ice inquiry and a coronial inquest into six deaths at music festivals during the 2018-19 summer, both of which recommended the NSW government set up drug-checking services.
Last week, the premier, Chris Minns, deflected questions about pill testing by saying there were “many different parts of drug policy” that needed to be examined.
He said toxicology reports from the autopsies of young people who had died at music festivals had led to the coroner saying it was “extreme heat” and a lack of hydration that were responsible for their deaths, not the drugs themselves.
The chief executive of drug reform group Unharm, Will Tregoning, accused Minns of “burying his head in the sand” and said the premier’s opposition to drug checking was risking lives.
“One thing’s for certain - people are going to take drugs this summer,” Tregoning said.
“Whether or not we have drug checking services in place to help them stay safe is up to the premier.”
The Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, who is pushing for legislative reform, said drug-checking services in the ACT and overseas were saving lives.
“All the experts at the coronial inquest into the six drug-related deaths at NSW music festivals have said that you can’t stop people taking drugs, so let’s just make sure they’re as informed as they can be when they do,” Faehrmann said.
The Minns government was elected in March on, among other things, a promise that it would hold a drugs summit within its first term to hear from drug reform experts. The summit did not receive any funding in the recent state budget.
