While Tone Deaf reported early last month that a recent set of data collated by drug harm reduction group Unharm proved that not only are police sniffer dog operations potentially dangerous, but also highly ineffective, they were out in full force over the New Year’s period.
Just days after it was reported that a police operation at Sydney’s Field Day festival yielded a record number of drug arrests — police arrested a total of 214 punters — a recent tour by UK electronic music group Above & Beyond has ended with a total of 71 arrests and six hospitalisations.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the group’s New Year’s Eve concert at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney ended with NSW police charging 31 people with drug offences, while six women, aged between 20 and 24, were taken to St Vincent’s Hospital after suffering adverse reactions to GHB and ecstasy.
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Among the 31 people charged with drug offences were a 23-year-old Victorian woman, who was allegedly found with 15 capsules of MDMA hidden in her bra, and a 29-year-old man from Punchbowl, who was allegedly found carrying 24 MDMA tablets and prescription drugs. Both were charged with supplying prohibited drugs.
Police said officers from the Surry Hills local area command and the police dog unit searched 84 of the estimated 5,000 people attending the event, issuing court attendance notices for drug offences to the 31 attendees found carrying illicit substances.
The police were equally vigilant during the group’s New Year’s Day event at the Sidney Music Bowl in Melbourne, arresting 40 people and seizing drugs including ecstasy, amphetamines, cocaine, cannabis, GHB, MDMA, and LSD during a sniffer dog operation.
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According to Seven News, 32 males and eight females were arrested, most of whom were aged between 22 and 25. Of the 40 arrests, 36 of those charged were referred to a drug diversion program, two were issued cautions, and another two were charged and bailed by police.
Despite calls from various advocacy groups, punters, and musicians such as Dan McNamee of Art Vs Science to end sniffer dog operations at music festivals and concerts, police continue to regularly dispatch sniffer dog-armed units to electronic music festivals and concerts.
New South Wales Police superintendent Mark Walton made headlines back in November after he claimed “electronic music events are consistently intimately associated with illicit psychoactive drug use” and “intrinsically linked to that drug use”.
