22 Hospitalised, Some Critical After Melbs Fest That Was “Awash With Drugs”

22 people have been hospitalised after overdosing on what is believed to be the synthetic drug GHB at a Melbourne dance party last night.
A total of 30 people were treated at Electric Parade Music Festival in Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl last night, an event which Ambulance Victoria State Health Commander Paul Holman described as “awash with drugs”: 
 “The majority of those treated by paramedics had overdosed on GHB.”

“We have transported 22 young people from that event alone and we’re now up to 30-plus from that event and across the city all with GHB overdoses, all critically ill.

“It’s the highest number of overdoses we have seen at a music event for some time… There’s always a risk that they’re going to die, and that we haven’t seen that tonight is probably good luck rather than anything else.”.”
Ambulances took the 22 people, many of whom are described as critical, to the Alfred, Royal Melbourne and St Vincent’s hospitals. 
GHB, a depressant usually taken in the form of a colourless, odourless liquid, can cause memory lapses, drowsiness, dizziness and headaches even in less-severe cases. 
Overdose symptoms can include vomiting, sweating, irregular breathing, confusion, agitation, hallucinations, blackouts and seizures.

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A Victoria Police spokeswoman has also said officers arrested 40 people, 33 men and seven women, at the festival, including a man charged and remanded overnight after he was allegedly found with ecstasy, cocaine, MDMA, LSD, ketamine and cannabis. 
Of those arrested, 28 people received diversions and two received cannabis cautions. 
And as the ABC reports, even an emergency of this size isn’t enough to change our outdated drug laws. Mental Health Minister Martin Foley said that, while their harm reduction efforts have clearly not been effective, the party has no plan to introduce pill testing:
“This was a tragedy of the proportions that we have not seen when it comes to drug overdoses at these kind of events.”

“What we need to do is ramp up our harm reduction efforts, the $192 million that we spend on all sorts of programs around peer support work.

“Getting the right messages about safe behaviour are clearly not working and we will consider how we have to do more.”
PEDESTRIAN.TV has contacted Electric Parade Music Festival organisers for comment.
Source: News.com.au / ABC
Photo: Instagram / electricparadefestival. 

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