The Australian " Prohibition " Era !

When will be ever  learn ?   The state's answer to a spate of drug deaths at a music festival is to close down such events and ensure that they can not obtain a legal venue anywhere in New South Wales. The Defqond Music Festival in Penrith attracted thirty thousand patrons over the weekend  and seven hundred people required medical assistance from the paramedics.  Tragically, two people died and another three are on the critical list in hospital and it is obvious that illicit drugs must have been freely flowing despite the presence of police with drug sniffer dogs.

The age of those who died was 21 and 23 and those in a critical state in hospital ranged from 19 to 28.  It is simply a fact of life that young people in this day and age seek the euphoria of the drug culture to take them above the heights possible with alcohol when they are in party mood.  The efforts of both customs and the police to keep drugs out of this country have failed and we have a flourishing local drug industry reacting to the mantra of " supply and demand " !

If we ban any sort of music festival from performing here we encourage what are called " rave parties " held in the bush.   The numbers will be smaller than that Penrith event and secrecy will mask the location until the last minute, but they could be even more deadly because at Penrith the paramedics were on hand in the expectation of drug abuse.

The state has rejected drug testing as a safety measure but drug users are blindly taking what drug labs turn out and this can range from a mere placebo to a lethal mix put together by an inexperienced drug cook.  We regularly bust such drug labs, but the big money to be made ensures that drugs will always be readily available.

For many decades the " Don't take drugs " mantra has fallen on deaf ears.   The drugs that induce euphoria are addictive but no more dangerous than alcohol if produced under controlled conditions and to a determined strength.  Should such a drug now be legally available to supply public demand ?

We seem to find ourselves in a similar position to American when it applied prohibition.  The public wanted alcohol and the criminal fraternity supplied it.   Illegal alcohol created the gangster era and the government admitted defeat and lifted the prohibition laws.  Isn't that very similar to where we are now with drugs ?

A lot of the police drug effort is directed at Marijuana and in the rest of the world that is being legalized.   It is hard to envisage a drug death that is related to smoking " pot " and that should be legal here if our brave politicians were ready to legislate to public opinion.  It is the lure of illegality that makes prohibited substances so  attractive to many people.

Perhaps a time to analyse the logistics of that music festival at Penrith.   Thirty thousand flowed through the gates - and seven hundred felt sufficient effect from illegal drugs to consult the paramedics.   The death toll could have been a lot higher if that had been an illegal rave party somewhere in the bush.

We will be doing our young people a grave disservice if we push music festivals underground and out of sight.  Just telling them to say " No " has not worked for a very long time !