Three people critical after taking bad drugs at Listen In Auckland dance concert
Three people were hospitalised in a critical condition after taking a suspected bad batch of drugs at an Auckland dance concert last night.
St John Ambulance confirmed five people were hospitalised during the Listen In concert at Mt Smart Stadium after 10pm yesterday.
Three people were in a critical condition and another was in a serious condition after becoming unwell because of a substance they had taken.
This is the EXACT sort of thing the Government’s drug testing stations at dance events is supposed to avoid, yet NZ First are refusing to accept the policy...
NZ First law and order spokesman Darroch Ball said his party was opposing the policy after discussions.
“We’re going down a very, very slippery slope when we’ve got illegal drugs being tested in green safe-zones,” he said.
“This is a party drug, this is for recreational fun times and young people are making that conscious decision to take those illegal, dangerous drugs. What these pill-testing stations do is totally absolves all of those young people from taking personal responsibility for their decisions.”
…let’s just examines this weird puritanical position shall we?
It’s illegal to take recreational drugs, it’s also illegal to drive faster than the speed limit. We enforce seat belts and still attend road accidents where speed is a factor, despite the driver knowing the law and yet we won’t extend harm minimisation to recreational drugs?
Think of these drug testing stations like seat belts, they minimise the harm caused even though the user (or driver) breaks the laws.
To see toxic overdoses as a fair enough punishment for taking recreational drugs in the first place is medieval thinking.
NZ First needs to start putting reason and compassion first and not the public flogging.