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Aussie youth playing "Russian roulette" with drugs at nationwide music festival: MP

Xinhua, December 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

A leading Australian Senator said Monday the country's young people are playing "Russian roulette" with illegal drugs following a spate of arrests, overdoses and two deaths at a high-profile music festival.

Nick Xenophon, a member of Australia's upper house of parliament, suggested a coronial inquest may shed some light on whether the deaths and overdoses during this year's Stereosonic tour were preventable.

"Any inquest needs to look at the responsibility of the organizers, the role of police and health professionals and also any warnings that should have been given," Xenophon told News Corp.

"It seems that young people are playing a form of chemical Russian roulette at an event that was awash with drugs."

Stereosonic, which has a reputation as the most drug-fuelled festival on the Australian music scene, is played across five capital cities over two weekends. It ended on Sunday, with the second weekend of the festival proving as deadly as the first.

Stefan Woodward, 19, died at the Adelaide leg of the event on Saturday after ingesting a "bad" ecstasy pill. A week earlier, 25-year-old Sylvia Choi died in a Sydney hospital under the same circumstances.

Despite multiple state police units issuing fresh warnings to festival-goers last week, ahead of the weekend's concerts in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, more than 190 arrests where made at the three sites, most of which related to drug offences.

In Brisbane and Melbourne alone, there were 20 people who reported to on-site medical crews with overdose symptoms.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull expressed his condolences on Sunday to Woodward's grieving family.

"Someone takes a pill and dies, probably, perhaps, unaware of the risks that they were taking," Turnbull said.

"(This is a) tragic event and all of us here have the same sympathy for the family."

Turnbull said his government was not seriously considering the controversial scheme of "pill testing", a harm minimization tactic which has been trailed with some success in European countries. Endit