Brazen drug dealers bring DIY pill test kits into music festivals

Cocky drug dealers are bringing their own pill testing kits to music festivals to win over customers with the purity of their products.

Party drugs like ecstasy, the stimulant of choice for young revellers, are frequently cut with numerous other substances, some toxic, to maximise profits.

To lure customers to their product, some dealers were keen to show their drugs were ‘pure’ and less likely to poison users with dodgy additives.

Party drugs like ecstasy are frequently cut with numerous other substances, some toxic, to cut cost, Electric Gardens (pictured) had dealers who were keen to show their drugs were pure

At least one dealer at the Electric Gardens festival in Sydney’s Centennial Park on Saturday was walking around with a DIY pill testing kit.

The setup, available online for $20-50, mixes a solution with a powder sample and turns a shade of purple depending on how pure the MDMA is.

‘I thought my pills were a dud from the first guy I was going to buy off but when the second dealer showed me a small test tube of a sample of his drugs that turned purple, I knew they were good and I trusted him,’ a user told The Australian. 

Festivals are a lucrative market for dealers – if they make it past police sniffer dogs – with capsules selling for $50 each, well above the usual $25-30.

Less than an hour after entering the Hardcore Til I Die festival in Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday, Daily Mail Australia was asked by a man if he could by drugs.

Neuroscience student Abbey Spurr, 19, (left) from Adelaide was allegedly caught with 48 capsules of MDMA, and Mitchell Bradley, 21, (right) was allegedly stopped with more than 33 grams of cocaine

The setup, available online for $20-50, mixes a solution with a powder sample and turns a shade of purple depending on how pure the MDMA is

State governments stubbornly refuse to allow pill testing at festivals, despite proponents arguing it would save lives.

‘Unfortunately, we know that pill testing won’t work because it will give people the green light to take substances which in the end could still kill them,’ NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian claimed.

The only pill testing trial to date, at the Groovin the Moo festival in Canberra last year, found toxic chemicals, toothpaste, and even paint, in samples.

Other additives can include cheaper MDMA substitutes like meth, synthetic cath­inones, known as ‘bath salts’, and toxic drug para-Methoxyamphetamine. 

On the other end of the scale, the GTM tests found some samples were so pure they had three times the usual MDMA, which could easily cause overdoses.

Inside the Hardcore Til I Die festival’s drug scene 

By Nic White for Daily Mail Australia

Daily Mail Australia attended HTID festival to see how heightened security in the wake of five deaths at music festivals in six months in NSW alone would affect the party. 

But from boarding the train to Olympic Park it was clear some were undeterred. Passengers openly discussed how many capsules they brought and when they were going to take them.

Some decided not to take the risk of arrest and relaxed in the afternoon sun on benches outside the station, while others were drinking from bottles of bourbon in full view of crowds.

A screen in middle of dance floor rotated safety messages including ‘don’t risk your life with drugs’ and ‘protect your hearing’

A few weren’t subtle enough about their drug possession and were spotted being shifty near the gates by police. After being searched by glove-wearing officers they were hauled inside to be charged

 After being searched by glove-wearing officers they were hauled inside to be charged before being released with a court summons

One put what appeared to be a pill or capsule in his mouth and swallowed it with a swig or Red Bull, while another took a substance from his shoe, snorted some, then put the rest back.

‘I’m f**ked up!’ one man who appeared to be under the influence responded when asked how his day was going. 

A few weren’t subtle enough about their drug possession and were spotted being shifty near the gates by police. After being searched by glove-wearing officers they were hauled inside to be charged. 

A senior officer said seven people were arrested in just the first hour after the doors opened.

Getting inside was a 45-minute, multi-stage process starting with a long line outside, then three checkpoints including bag and pocket searches and sniffer dog checks as a dozen police looked on. 

There were three checkpoints including bag and pocket searches and sniffer dog checks as a dozen police looked on. Two men are sen here being led away after sniffer dogs detected something

Police seemed to rely almost entirely on the two hardworking canines, but at least one person was pulled out of the line every few minutes and frogmarched to a police truck behind a temporary wall

Some who managed to get their drugs past the phalanx of security weren’t able to dodge the police for long, with a series of people cornered by security and officers and led outside.

One group of three including a bald, shirtless man with bulging muscles was one of the first to be ushered outside after first being spoken to at length.

There were people looking to buy as well, though the price inside is far higher than the $25-30 of street MDMA – as high as $50 and with the risk of the open-air deal being spotted by security.

Less than an hour after entering the festival, Daily Mail Australia was approached by a man looking to score drugs, not knowing who he was speaking to.

‘Hey do you have any caps? I need to buy some caps,’ he said. When told no, he then asked: ‘Do you know anyone who does?’ Other revellers were seen dropping pills on the dancefloor under cover of darkness.

One group of three including a bald, shirtless man with bulging muscles was one of the first to be ushered outside after first being spoken to at length

A bag of a size commonly used to store pills or capsules of MDMA is seen on the ground

Suddenly the consequences became all too real as a 22-year-old man was taken out of the venue on a stretcher and rushed to Westmead Hospital with a suspected drug overdose.

The young man was in a critical condition and had to be intubated in the ambulance as he couldn’t breathe on his own. Hospital sources said he suffered a cardiac arrest in the ER and was in critical condition.

Fortunately, he survived and was in a stable condition by Sunday morning. Four others overdosed at the festival, two of whom were also in critical condition overnight but all were stable by morning.

Outside the festival, a young woman with makeup streaking down her face said she was kicked out after a sniffer dog found two capsules of MDMA in her bag.

‘My friend asked me to carry two caps for her. I took one before I came in but didn’t want any more because I didn’t want this to happen. Now I’m charged,’ she said.

She faces court in March accused of drug possession. 

Three men are fighting for life in hospital with suspected drug overdoses at Hardcore Til I Die – including this 22-year-old man

A witness told Daily Mail Australia of the man’s struggle to stay conscious before being rushed away by paramedics 

The trial had revellers hand over a sample of their drugs which were tested by a chemist on site to see what was in them.

Samples that contained what the user expected were marked white, those not what they expected marked yellow, and any with unknown substances or additives more likely to kill marked red.

Doctors would then discuss the results with revellers, who could dump their drugs in an amnesty bin or decide to take them anyway.

About 40 per cent of those who tested their drugs said it made them change their drug-taking behaviour, and 20 per cent said they would throw their drugs away.

A trial in Britain found two thirds of users whose drugs contained contained unexpected substances threw their pills away and hospital admissions fell 95 per cent, according to a Harm Reduction Australia report.

The Groovin’ the Moo festival trial last year had revellers hand over a sample of their drugs which were tested by a chemist on site to see what was in them

A stock image of a pill test at a music festival overseas shows different colours for different drugs

At least 22 people were rushed to hospital with suspected overdoses across four music festivals over the Australia Day weekend.

There were at five at Electric Gardens, six at HTID, seven at the four-day Rainbow Serpent in rural Victoria, and four at Rolling Loud at Sydney’s Olympic Park on Sunday night.

Three from Rainbow Serpent are still fighting for life in hospital but the rest were all in stable conditions or discharged.

Dozens at each festival were charged with drug possession plus numerous others arrested for alleged drug dealing.

They included a 17-year-old boy from Sydney allegedly caught with 579 MDMA capsules and $2,075 cash at HTID, neuroscience student Abbey Spurr, 19, from Adelaide allegedly caught with 48 capsules, and Mitchell Bradley, 21, who was allegedly stopped with more than 33 grams of cocaine.