Expert panel’s recommendations on drugs doomed to fail: Greens

The recommendations announced today from the NSW Premier's expert panel into safety at music festivals are doomed to fail and won’t save lives, Greens MP and spokesperson for Drug Law Reform, Cate Faehrmann says.

“Just like the war on drugs, these recommendations are doomed to fail,” Ms Faehrmann said.

“If the Premier cared more about saving the lives of young people than appearing tough on crime we'd have a very different set of recommendations today.

“The panel was always doomed to fail because the Premier ruled out having music industry expertise on it as well as allowing it to consider solutions that have been proven to save lives like pill-testing.

“If the government was serious about saving lives and reducing harm, it would have asked the panel to consider lab-grade pill testing for festivals, banning sniffer dogs, and amnesty bins. These are the solutions that drug experts say works.

“These recommendations will achieve nothing and are just more of the same, failed “tough on crimes approach.”

“All this ongoing war on drugs has given us is more dead bodies. This was an opportunity to listen to the experts and they’ve clearly failed to do that.

"What is the Premier's response going to be if any more lives are lost this summer? It's disgraceful that this government ruled out a trial of pill-testing when it's the one solution that most drug experts agree works.” 

October 22, 2018