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The controversial pill testing strategy saving lives at musical festivals | 60 Minutes Australia
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GEMA Tom's was not what you'd regard as
a drug addict she was quite the opposite
at 17 Gemma was energetic and
conscientious but her promising young
life was cut short after taking ecstasy
at a Perth Music Festival the added
tragedy is that Gemma story is not
unusual and it seems an all too regular
occurrence a teenager killed by ecstasy
or another of the so called party drugs
clearly Australia's drug strategy is not
working but there is another way
forget sniffer dogs and the threat of
jail in Europe a radical approach is
focused on one thing saving young lives
and that means helping partygoers find
out exactly what's in the drugs before
they take them pill testing might seem
confronting but it is working a dance
but it could be anywhere in the world
the reality is that for many here
ecstasy and other party drugs are part
of their night [Music]
[Music]
but the chances are high that no one
will die of this party because they can
have their drugs tested right next to
the dance floor all that is required for
the test is a tiny scraping the police
stay away to encourage the young
partygoers to have their drugs checked
which is done in a mobile lab outside
chemist Reina Schmidt and drugs
counselor Karl Koecher / run this
program in Vienna paid for by the city's
Health Department we see drug taking as
effect so we want to promote safer use
but it's the the decision is always on
their side the test takes about 30
minutes 30 minutes that could save a
life by informing the user exactly what
they're about to take so a program like
this helps people decide whether to take
them or not to take them yeah I think it
says a lot more because when somebody
had firm knowledge about stuff then it
can decide it for his own what to do the
results are posted on a notice board
white means your pill contains what you
thought it did yellow means there are
other drugs in it red means it's unknown
or highly dangerous do you believe
you're saving lives yes sir [Music]
I think the more information you can
give to people the more they are free to
to make their own decisions and I think
this is always a good thing
but should they be able to make free
decisions over something that has been
outlawed something that's illegal I
think yes because drug laws were
invented to prevent people from using
drugs did they do that
No there are these laws for years and
years and years and years and nothing
has changed do you think that she had
any intention of dying that day
absolutely not February 1st 2009 Perth
teenager Jimmy Tom's is on her way to
the Big Day Out dance festival did you
worry or did you think that she might
try drugs there that day it didn't cross
my mind that she was gonna actually go
and take ecstasy that's for sure hmm
but what Gemma's mum Peter Davies didn't
know was her daughter had already taken
one ecstasy pill at home and she had two
more in her pocket at the venue Gemma's
friends say she panicked when she heard
that police were patrolling with sniffer
dogs and swallowed the other two pills
at once I walked into the hospital and
my beautiful little girl was laid there
with tubes out of her mouth and I was in shock
shock
absolute complete shock Gemma step
sister Eden and stepdad Paul were with
Peter as Gemma died
the three ecstasy pills she taken were
always going to kill her because Gemma
had no idea how strong they were do you
think that she had any understanding of
the risk she was taking no there's no
way she thought she was going to die
from it
Gemma wasn't that kind of person she
loved life she had a great job she was
excited for the future
he's absolutely no way [Music]
[Music]
what is the message in Australia don't
do drugs
period is that message being heard not
at all dr. David cold Akash is an
Australian toxicologist and emergency
room physician who has witnessed the
worst of what ecstasy and other similar
drugs can do the deaths are terrible and
the deaths are what keep me awake at
night because the deaths involve
generally extraordinary young people and
it's all around us it's happening all
the time and if the Australian general
public think that it's a minority
they're deluding themselves David says
our current drugs policy ignores reality
because at lumps so-called recreational
drugs in with much more dangerous
substances like ice and heroin this is
the equivalent of priests telling young
people not to have sex it represents a
tannic stunning misunderstanding of
do you except for the very presence of
police at some of these parties will in
fact make the behavior of that drug
taking riskier in a kid's seize sniffer
dogs so they down their tablets multiple
tablets well I don't accept accept that
as a premise detective Superintendent
Tony cook of the New South Wales drug
squad rejects any notion that
Australia's current drug enforcement
policy targeting dance festivals with
sniffer dogs and the threat of
prosecution might be contributing to
deaths from ecstasy and the like we very
clearly tell people that these drugs are
illegal and they are a criminal offense
and we will continue to enforce the law
the authorities believe that it's
against the law to take these drugs that
there are police patrolling there are
sniffer dogs there that's what's there
to keep them safe but it hasn't hasn't
it's it hasn't stopped it it's not going
to stop it a mistake that's all it was
and today the consequences just in the
last 12 months there's been a spate of
high-profile deaths of young people
after taking ecstasy at dance parties
dozens more have been hospitalized Peter
Davies and a growing number of critics
believe Australia's drugs policy puts
police in an impossible position what
priority is saving lives
it's obviously a significant priority is
that the main priority
yeah yes it is so currently we're not
achieving the main priority aren't we
well unfortunately some people still
engage in the behavior of their own
volition which has the most terrible of
outcomes but to characterize that by
saying the police aren't concerned with
inyart van der Heide is the same age as
Gemma was when she died but she lives in
Holland where every major city here has
a state sanctioned pill testing center [Music]
[Music]
you bought of this ecstasy yeah I bought
some kickass ecstasy like about 70
percent of ecstasy users worldwide
inn-yard only takes the drug
occasionally and that's even more reason
for her to want to find out exactly what
she's taking you know how much I know
because I'm a woman I can get one to one
and a half minute grams of MDMA for each
kilogram I have the pill that you've
just tested tell me about it it's a very
high dose feel for a girl with her
weight and length it's it's too much so
you need to be aware of it how does that
change your behavior if at all I will
just take a quarter or half and then we
will see but no I will never take one
pill it's a one moment that's too much
it always is are they adapting the usage
because they're being warned yeah
definitely they know what the
consequences are of high high contents
of drugs we met van hassled is with
Holland's trim boss Institute which has
run the pill checking program for more
than 20 years how would you describe the
difference in drug takers here in the
Netherlands and those in Australia what
fascinates me is that if you look at the
way people are taking drugs in Australia
when they go out is that they're not
very much concerned on what they take
because they don't have an idea of the
real contents what they're taking and
they're less informed on the
consequences of the different drugs so
it's it's a wild night out one of the
greatest fears of the pill testing
program is that by its very existence
its sanctions drug taking and so
therefore more people will start using
illegal drugs well here in Austria where
the program has been
operating for nearly two decades the
opposite is true studies show that of
those who've had their drugs tested a
third say they will no longer take them
and if the results prove dodgy they'll
warn their friends off them too we know
for a fact that venues which offer pill
checking or drug checking it changes the
way young people take the pills with
Australia topping the world in the use
of ecstasy dr. David cold cot has been
lobbying for us to follow Europe's lead
to let young people have their pills
tested to know what they're taking
before it kills them the way we're
dealing with drugs at the moment doesn't
work for people who've already decided
to use drugs and what we have to try to
do is to engage in at a different level
but just because this group of people
ignores the law does that mean the law
should change well if a law doesn't work
it's not a very good law is it and the
message of just saying no that's
terrible and it's killing people and it
needs to stop and it needs to stop now
do you accept that for a group of people
the message of don't take drugs and your
other message that they're dangerous
is just not being heard that they don't
believe you unfortunately yes and that's disappointing
disappointing
so can you see a day when there might be
pill checking in Australia well no I
don't think so that to me would be tacit
support of drug use [Music]
[Music]
no young person deserves to be a
statistic but the truth is the
overwhelming majority of young people
who take ecstasy do so only for a few
years for them it is a phase a dangerous
phase but a phase nonetheless we know
for a fact that this particular group of
consumers are people who will probably
be functional users so they're not
impaired they are taxpayers many of them
will in the end become captains of
industry probably and our job is to try
to keep them alive you know while
shortening the space of time in which
they use drugs it doesn't mean we're
condoning drugs at all it's just another
way for our kids to be safe how would
pull checking of social life do you
think I can only imagine now I can only
imagine that if it was in place then
that I'd be able to have my beautiful
daughter back and you how can you not
want to do that how can they say it's
not a good thing it's not just my
daughter it's other people's daughters
and sons and in it's a life a life
hello I'm Tara Brown
thanks for watching to keep up with the
latest from 60 minutes Australia make
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