The mother of a young woman who died of a drug overdose at a music festival says if pill testing was around at the time her daughter would still be alive.
Jennie Ross-King believes that had her daughter Alex, 19, been educated by experts in a pill testing tent she would never have taken a fatal dose of MDMA at the FOMO music festival in January this year.
Alex was one of six young people to die after overdosing on drugs at music festivals across New South Wales between December 2017 and January 2019.
The deaths of Ms Ross-King, Josh Tam, 22, Nathan Tran, 18, Callum Brosnan, 19, Diana Nguyen, 21 and Joseph Pham, 23, led to a coronial inquest.
NSW state coroner Harriet Grahame’s proposed findings were leaked on Tuesday and include major reductions in policing – including strip searches – and the introduction of pill testing.
Alex Ross-King (pictured), 19, was one of six young people to die after drug overdoses at music festivals across New South Wales between December 2017 and January 2019
Her mother Jennie Ross-King (left) told Daily Mail Australia that pill testing could have saved the life of her daughter. ‘I know that Alex had the service available she would have used the service,’ Ms Ross-King said
While it is too late for her daughter, Ms Ross-King told Daily Mail Australia she hopes the changes will save the lives of other young partygoers.
‘I know that Alex had the service available she would have used the service,’ Ms Ross-King said.
‘I also know that Alex would have not only listened to the ‘experts’, but acted on the information and whatever education they could have given her.’
Ms Ross-King said she that since the inquest she had kept in regular contact with the other parents who like her had sat through the inquest after losing children to music festival drug overdoses.
She said the draft recommendations were ‘comprehensive and made perfect sense’.
‘I think pill testing is the last post for people that have an intention to take a drug, be it at a music festival and or any other time,’ Ms Ross-King said.
‘Pill testing and more importantly the peer services that accompany the testing is the last safety net of intervention and education.
Having heard and read all the information proved to the Coroner… they make perfect sense
‘It can be made available to better inform the user at the very moment they intend on taking a drug that is potentially harmful to them.’
The Daily Telegraph reports that Ms Grahame’s leaked draft proposals have angered both NSW Police and the state government, who remain opposed to pill testing.
One government source said of the draft proposals: ‘You might as well legalise drugs at festivals from what is contained in the report.’
As part of her report the state coroner cited her own experience at two festivals she attended, saying the heavy police presence ‘made her feel nervous’.
Sniffer dogs, strip searches and an overwhelming police presence at music festivals could soon be banned if the draft proposals are agreed to
Groovin The Moo in Canberra trialled pill testing earlier this year. Samples of the drugs were measured and weighed before the testing continued. All results were recorded for future reference
State coroner Harriet Grahame (middle) attends a pill testing demonstration at the Splendour in the Grass music festival in Byron Bay, NSW, earlier this year
As part of her investigations Ms Grahame cited her own experience at two music festivals she attended in 2019, saying the heavy police presence ‘made her feel nervous’
‘There were lines and lines of police and dogs. I was surprised at how intense it was,’ Ms Grahame said of the experience.
Ms Grahame’s experience was supported by psychologist Dr Stephen Bright, one of a number of experts to give evidence at the inquest.
Dr Bright suggested the overwhelming police presence at the entry gates may have contributed to the spate of deaths, with revellers consuming their supply of drugs in a single dose in a bid to avoid detection.
The inquest also put the police powers under scrutiny after young people came forward claiming they had been unfairly targeted and humiliated by strip searches.
The state’s law enforcement watchdog, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, confirmed it will conduct a three-day investigation into allegations NSW Police are abusing their strip searching rights.
Strip searches are only supposed to be carried out on the field when police believe the urgency and seriousness of the situation requires it.
The youngest person subjected to the procedure between 2016 and 2018 was just 10 years old.
The coroner heard a 28-year-old reveller – whose name was suppressed – was told by a female officer at a festival she would make the strip search ‘nice and slow’ after she denied carrying any drugs.
Ms Ross-King attends the inquest into deaths at music festivals in NSW earlier this year. Draft proposals from state coroner Harriet Grahame were revealed on Tuesday, with Ms Ross-King saying they ‘made perfect sense’
Parents of those who died, Andrew Murphy, Jennie Ross-King, Julie Tam, Matthew King, John Tam and Cornelius Brosnan pose for a photograph outside the inquest in September this year
Matthew King, the father of Alex Ross-King, hugs Cornelius Brosnan, the father of Callum Brosnan, outside the Coroner’s Court following the inquest in September this year
The strip search resulted in no drugs being found on her body, but left her feeling humiliated.
NSW frontbencher Andrew Constance argued the recommendations, if enforced, would do little to stop drug overdoses at festivals.
‘If the pure form of the drug is tested and found not to be laced and people still take it, they can still lose their life,’ he told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.
‘What we’re seeing is young people at these festivals … dehydrated, overdosing, and they’re losing their lives. So I don’t see pill testing as the answer.’
But NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann said in a statement the recommendations ‘appear to confirm that the government’s zero tolerance approach is doing nothing to save lives’.
‘No government in the world has been able to stop people taking drugs,’ she said.
‘More and more countries are recognising that the war on drugs has been a colossal failure and are adopting harm reduction measures and saving lives.’
Ms Grahame’s final recommendations will be handed down on November 8.
THE FACES OF THE INQUEST INTO MUSIC FESTIVAL DEATHS
Alexandra Ross-King, 19
Alex Ross-King
The 19-year-old attended the FOMO music festival in January alongside 11,000 revellers.
She consumed two half-pills on her journey from the Central Coast in a mini bus to Parramatta Park earlier this year and two more pills upon her arrival, the inquest heard.
The teenager was rushed to Westmead hospital after she displayed symptoms of an overdose at the festival, and later died.
Joshua Tam, 22
Josh Tam
The 22-year-old died after taking an unknown substance at Lost Paradise festival in Gosford, New South Wales.
Mr Tam, from Toowong in Brisbane, was rushed to Gosford hospital on December 29 and died soon after arriving.
The rugby player attended the festival with a bunch of friends, who were later forced to identify his body.
Hoang Nathan Tran
Nathan Tran, 18
The 18-year-old died after taking MDMA at Knockout Circuz on December 16, 2017.
He is believed to have consumed four capsules at the event and drank a bottle of water mixed with MDMA.
The inquest heard the 18-year-old became agitated and had to be handcuffed in order to get him to the medical centre.
His temperatures also soared to 41C and he died just 90 minutes after arriving at hospital.
Joseph Phan, 23
Joseph Phan
The 23-year-old from western Sydney reportedly had a heart attack and died after he consumed drugs at Defqon.1 on September 15, 2018.
He and five of his friends were ‘pumped and ready to have a good time’ when they arrived to the western Sydney festival.
He later told his friends that he had taken three to four pills and was taken to the medical tent at 7.30pm as he was feeling ‘extremely unwell’.
Mr Pham’s temperatures rocketed to 39.5C and he was rushed to Nepean Hospital where he died due to cardiac arrest.
Callum Brosnan, 19
Callum Brosnan
The 19-year-old from Baulkham Hills, was found in a ‘distressed state’ at the Knockout Games of Destiny Dance Party at Sydney Olympic Park in Homebush, Sydney on December 9.
He was admitted to Concord Hospital with a suspected drug overdose and died little more than three hours later at 4:30am.
Mr Brosnan had recently been accepted into Sydney’s prestigious Conservatorium of Music.
Diana Nguyen, 18
Diana Nguyen
The 18-year-old also died at Defqon. 1. music festival on September 15.
She reportedly sent text messages to her fiance in the hours prior to her death expressing her fears over consuming the drugs.
She travelled from Victoria for the hardstyle music festival and had left behind a worried fiance, who urged her to be careful at the event.