A day after the ABC’s in-depth report on the arguments for – and against – pill-testing at music festivals, New South Wales Police Minister Troy Grant has doubled down on his assertion testing doesn’t help anybody but drug dealers themselves.
His alternative? Make festivals pay for sniffer dog searches on-premises before punters even rock up. Oh, and organisers would ideally foot the bill. Of course.
She proposed pill-testing, instead.
Of course, that means that anyone deadset on taking drugs will have to go in blind, but hey.
Just gave notice of bill to repeal use of sniffer dogs in carrying out drug detection #sniffoff (@ShoebridgeMLC) pic.twitter.com/7SqTtczA8z
— Jenny Leong MP (@jennyleong) February 16, 2016
Meanwhile, fellow MP David Shoebridge called Grant out specifically, and urged Premier Mike Baird to take a more holistic approach to harm minimisation and drug use.
Police Minister Troy Grant is in #nswpol #qt now continuing to push a failed war on drugs policy
— David Shoebridge (@ShoebridgeMLC) February 16, 2016
.@mikebairdMP needs to take this out of the hands of a clueless Police Minister & introduce evidence based harm reduction measures #nswpol
— David Shoebridge (@ShoebridgeMLC) February 16, 2016
Photo: Don Arnold / Getty.