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From DFA media release – 18 November 2019
Drug Free Australia (DFA) has completed its review of the Deputy Coroner’s findings on 6 music festival deaths and has found that she has repeatedly dismissed crucial evidence that collapses many of her findings.
Incontrovertible evidence that was dismissed for no given reason was:
History – pill testing would not have saved one life – All Australian ecstasy deaths recorded in 392 Coroners’ reports from 2001 to 2016 (see p 18) were due to ecstasy itself or from polydrug use of other drugs such as alcohol and cocaine with ecstasy involved. Yet pill testing, which was recommended by the Deputy Coroner, gave an “all clear” in last April’s Canberra trial to each sample containing the very substance which NDARC’s Dr Amanda Roxburgh found causal in all of the 392 Australian MDMA-related deaths.
DFA gave similar evidence from a related study in testimony to the Deputy Coroner’s Inquiry. Gary Christian, DFA’s Research Director says that this evidence totally negates any rationale for pill testing. “Think of it more picturesquely this way,” he said. “Imagine all 392 who have died lined up at a pill testing tent getting their pills tested, including those who suicided. All would have been given the “all-clear” for their ecstasy pill because it was found to be what they thought it was, as per the Canberra trial. All 392 would have died from their ecstasy, (not from impurities or deadly drugs mixed into their pill because none of these deaths were nominated), with pill testing providing zero protective effect with not one death prevented. And yet the Coroner rejected this kind of damning evidence outright without comment. It’s an outrage,” Mr Christian said.
Zero evident behaviour change – The Coroner also enthusiastically accepted evidence from the UK that 20% of users who had unexpected substances found in their pills discarded them. This was taken as evidence of significant behaviour change that was lauded by the Coroner. Yet not one person who had ecstasy found in their pill in the 2019 Canberra trial was recorded as discarding their pill, despite all, according to Dr David Caldicott, having been told of the dangers of ecstasy causing numerous deaths. DFA drew this failure to the Coroner’s attention in Seotember, but that information was also dismissed without comment.
UK pill testing a failure – Other figures showing no behaviour change after pill testing were given by DFA to the Coroner in verbal testimony last September but dismissed. While European countries have poor to non-existent statistics on ecstasy deaths, the UK keeps up-to-date figures. Pill testing operated by “the Loop” began in 2013 and by 2016 began expanding into 12 music festivals with government approval. In 2013 ecstasy was used by 1.2% of the population, rising significantly to 1.7% by 2017/18 (see p 7). In 2013 there were 43 ecstasy deaths more than doubling to 92 deaths in 2018. The Coroner was told that this indicated no behaviour change or protective effect from pill testing, but she again dismissed the evidence.
Police save more lives – In further evidence given by DFA to the Coroner, Drug Free Australia undermined the Coroner’s and Counsel’s assertion that police should have a stand down order where pill testing was operating in festivals because they were failing to deter drug use. DFA informed the Coroner that all Australians know full well that speeding and associated deaths would dramatically increase if the policing of speeding was discontinued. The Coroner again ignored the obvious.
Safe dosing advice an impossibility – Claims by Pill Testing Australia’s Dr David Caldicott that governments should be funding more expensive pill testing equipment capable of measuring MDMA purity and dose in a pill (the Canberra trial’s cheaper equipment was NOT capable of measuring dose or purity [see p 17] despite these advocates cynically claiming that pill testing was needed because increasing dose and purity would cause deaths) went unchallenged by the Coroner. DFA had given evidence that many factors amplify the toxicity of ecstasy, such as alcohol use or higher ambient temperature and social context. (The Coroner did not explore the fact that 4 of the 6 decedents used substantial amounts of vodka or whiskey with their ecstasy before death – a practice roundly condemned by all harm reduction and harm prevention organisations). DFA has since informed all State and Territory Parliamentarians of this scientific study which shows that precisely the same dose of ecstasy causes MDMA blood concentrations with a sevenfold difference between users (see graph below), making any dosing advice on safe dosing levels meaningless.
Coroner promoting drug legaliser tropes – Possibly the most disappointing of the Coroner’s assertions was that the prohibition of drugs causes frequent deaths despite no MDMA-related deaths in 16 years being due to impurities or resulting from other drugs cut with the MDMA. Very few deaths would have been from overdoses on ecstasy outside of suicides because ecstasy overdose is rare. Echoing the same nonsensical “War on Drugs has failed” trope as other drug legalisation advocates, the Coroner has overlooked the fact that police have never eliminated stealing or rape, but nobody would suggest that we legalise these things because of their failure. “We are disappointed that a professional such as this Coroner has allowed her drug-liberal activism to overwhelm common-sense to the point of using an argument that makes sense only to those unwilling to use common logic. 97% of Australians do not approve the regular use of ecstasy and 92% do not want it legalised, and yet the Deputy Coroner stands against these Australian values without apology or logic,” said Mr Christian. “The Coroner’s findings are a disgrace.”
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Note that users who consumed only 115 mg of MDMA (doses up to 150 mg are used for PTSD research with ecstasy) had blood concentrations ranging from 160 ng/ml (0.16mg/litre) up to 1,040 ng/ml (1.04 ml/litre) blood MDMA concentrations in the graph above. Find 110-115 mg on the “Cumulative MDMA dose (mg) axis and compare the individual blood readings on the Plasma MDMA axis.
Gary Christian
RESEARCH DIRECTOR
Drug Free Australia
0422 163 141