According to News Corp Australia, Darwin’s Lostfest dance festival was the site of multiple drug overdoses on the weekend, with two people rushed to hospital and another treated on site after allegedly ingesting a new unknown party drug.
NT News reports the punters allegedly took mysterious purple pills during Lostfest on Saturday night. The event took place at the Darwin Ski Club, with a lineup featuring Orkestrated, Slice N Dice, Rob Pix, Torren Foot, and more.
St John Ambulance spokesman Kevin Blake told News Corp Australia paramedics were called to three separate incidents involving partygoers who experienced adverse effects after consuming a purple pill at the dance event.
“All three people had been to the Ski Club and all advised they had taken the purple pill,” Mr Blake said. “We went to two incidents between 6.30pm and 9pm that were emergency responses for drug overdoses at the Ski Club music festival.”
“For it to have been an emergency response they would have had your typical altered levels of consciousness and possibly breathing problems.” Paramedics reportedly transported one male and one female to Royal Darwin Hospital in a stable condition.
Mr Blake said paramedics later attended another drug-related incident on Edmund St in Darwin City. “The patient had been to the Ski Club, taken a purple pill and was displaying bizarre behaviour but was OK when paramedics arrived,” he said.
Sergeant Drew Slape of the City Safe and Licensing Patrol Unit said the compounds of the “illicit drug in the form of a purple pill” were yet to be determined but had caused “a dangerous reaction” in those who consumed them.
Meanwhile, Superintendent Del Jones said it was not yet known whether the affected festivalgoers experienced overdoses or “had a severe reaction to compounds in these drugs”. Supt Jones said police have information the mysterious pills are circulating in Darwin and “could be lethal”.
Two men, aged 23 and 24, were arrested and charged with possession of MDMA and LSD during the event leading Sgt Slape to comment, “Police would like to reiterate the dangers to life in taking unknown, untried, untested substances.”
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According to News Corp Australia, the purple pills have hit the streets following several incidents involving the drug “Snapchat” earlier this year. A 20-year-old man reportedly plunged to his death from a Darwin apartment after taking the drug.
It’s not known whether pill-testing facilities were available at Lostfest, though considering their scarcity in Australia, it is unlikely despite the noted benefits they provide to punter health and safety, as noted by 60 Minutes earlier this month.
According to the program’s report, studies performed by Austrian researchers found one third of people who discover what’s actually inside the pills they’ve bought decide not to take them, proving that drug-checking services reduce drug use rather than increase it.
