“Mad Drug Made A-OK” — an acrostic and entirely sensible headline splashed across The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday — marks the buzzing high of a returning culture war.
This time, it’s pill testing… again. But why? Well, the paper got hold of the draft report of New South Wales Coroner Harriet Grahame’s inquest into the deaths of six festival goers in NSW.
“Decriminalising personal use of drugs as a mechanism to reduce the harm caused by drug use,” was one of the recommendations. That’s what gets the front page, while a two-page spread inside the paper — flanked on either side by an ad for amazing specials at Liquor Stax, incidentally — talks about Grahame’s “shock” call to “limit strip searches”.
Today took the standard approach, starting with the patented morning show formula of getting two people of, er, diverse credentials — in this case, comedian and broadcaster Lawrence Mooney and the Tele‘s state political editor Anna Caldwell — and opposing views to tell us what they reckon. Predictably, Caldwell was opposed, saying Grahame’s “vision was a hippy utopia, cops’ll be your friends, they’ll tell you pills are fine, they may even give you one …”. Host Deb Knight said, sagely, “Hmm, yes, difficult. Both sides.”
Later, they featured a thoughtful interview with the mother of a young man who died of an overdose seven years ago, talking about her belief that pill testing would reduce harm.
Sunrise — where host David Koch has previously come out in favour of testing — played it straight, interviewing NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who reiterated her intention to ignore the experts and oppose pill testing. The premier’s approach was backed in the Tele, with an editorial and a Miranda Devine column opposing the recommendations: “Let’s hope wiser heads prevail in the meantime and help Premier Gladys Berejiklian holds firm against the devious propagandists of the drug liberalisation industry,” Devine wrote. The editorial gave Grahame credit for going “beyond a coroner’s standard investigatory levels, even attending two music festivals in order to build a complete picture of the matters at hand”, while concluding her recommendations appeared to be “at odds with reason”.
These have been joined today by warnings that “Dangerous party drug Ecstasy kills almost 30 Australians a year, new research finds” and “Home pill testing surges but safety not guaranteed“.
Across town, the Tele’s tabloid rival The Sydney Morning Herald treated the news soberly, noting only that Berejiklian was to ignore the recommendations. The SMH also ran an editorial that concluded “Berejiklian is wary of trying something new. But the case for a highly regulated limited trial of pill-testing and changes to police tactics is building.”
You have to smile wryly at Miranda Devine accusing others of devious propaganda.
Obnoxious as she is, she can still make us laugh….
She just makes me shudder.
One paragraph once a month in my barber’s paper and I turn the page and shake my head at the level of thought of modern Australians 🙁
It seems in all things the LNP knows better than anyone what is correct and what’s not.
We have 99% of scientists acknowledging climate change is real. But the LNP says NO.
RBA and even business groups say the economy needs stimulating. LNP says NO.
Coroner says pill testing will help. LNP says NO.
Introduce changes to the way water is used. LNP says PRAY.
When did science and proof get put aside for opinion in policy making?
And where the hell is Australia headed?
Sad
The Festival organisers will organise or pay for the testing. The only response needed from Gladys is a yes
The question is simple why should public money be used for private festivals ?
There must be a fair bit of MDMA consumed away from festivals and clubs. Do people sometimes die at each other’s homes ? Maybe we need more broadly available pill testing.
I’ve said here before, it’s worth comparing this with alcohol use. The big ads for plonk either side of a drug rant are sort of amusing but instructive too. No amount of promotion and ready availability can induce most people to drink either at all or beyond a small level. Rates of alcohol and tobacco consumption has fallen a lot largely due to better knowledge. It suggests that MDMA might not be the social or moral disaster we think and the dodgy nature of its manufacture is the problem.
Ah yes Berejiklian , Australia’s own Carrie Lam.