It’s hard to get around these days. There is
2019’s biggest challenge for governments, festival organisers and emergency services is reducing trafficking of drugs at festivals, concerts and large events.
Traffick Control
The biggest debate at the moment is how do we take control of the illegal drug industry? In short, we can’t. We have to look at human behaviours and enforcement. Why do people take illicit drugs? Why are certain festivals at more risk than others of this behaviour? What are the courts doing with offenders?
The NSW Government has released a set of new rules for what they deem highrisk events. This pushes the emphasis onto the festival organisers. Organisers are there to make money, so increased cost in one area means cut backs in others. Is this really a model for tackling the drug culture?
Lay out the road cones
We have seen a higher presence of drug detection, police and even drug testing. The more hurdles you put in front of the issue, the harder it becomes to traffick substances. This won’t end the issue, but it will continue to weed out the opportunist dealers.
Pill testing
Pill testing helps to uncover potentially lethal components in a drug. The issue with this being the front runner for control is that it doesn’t prevent an overdose. The main reason (based on recent articles) for a lot of the deaths has been overdosing – someone takes too much of a substance or has an adverse reaction to it, rather than the substance being laced with something. We need to remember that illegal substances are poisonous already.
Security Planning
Security planning and risk assessing are fundamental to reducing harm. Government and industry need to get together and bring in external experts (not just Police and Doctors) to discuss. The community itself are the ones impacted by the drugs, the sentencing and the deaths. Their voice should be heard.
Having a security plan for your event will help to lay down the foundations of a safe event. These plans should be created independently from organisations who have a material interest (I’d argue your guard company would gear a plan towards more hours or bodies, or that governments would skew it towards safety and unrealistic business outcomes), and then reviewing and
We need to reduce traffick trauma
Can we all work together towards a solution?
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