If you’re going to take drugs at a festival, look after your friends and know the risks.
Sydney mother-of-four Mel Gabbusch says she was shocked by the behaviour of a group of revellers at Stereosonic who didn’t seem to understand just how serious drug overdoses could be.
Taylor Swift’s only Sydney concert and dance music festival Stereosonic were both on at Olympic Park on Saturday night, with the two crowds crossing over on public transport and in common areas.
Gabbusch, 34, was enjoying dinner with a friend before Swift’s concert when she noticed a seriously drug-affected woman nearby.
“I saw some girls walking around near the restaurant. One was walking really unsteadily on her feet, they sat down at a table and she had fallen in her seat and was slumped there,” Gabbusch told Mamamia.
She realised the woman had passed out.
“She looked really bad so I kept watching and they weren’t doing anything. I went over and I asked her friends: ‘What’s she taken?’ and they said they didn’t know.
“I said ‘Come on, what’s she taken? This is serious’ and they eventually said MDMA.”
Gabbusch said she was shocked at their lack of action, and described the women as being unsure that their friend needed medical attention.
“I told them they needed to call an ambulance, but they asked me ‘can you do it?’, and so I called the ambulance and then I lay her on the ground, checked her airways, just whatever the Triple-0 person was saying.
Top Comments
We need better education & testing as a start to help with this.
More sniffer dogs and police presence
Yes and no. A greater police presence can actually encourage people to take all their pills at once for fear of being caught, leading to an overdose that otherwise would not have happened.
It's a tricky situation. I absolutely believe that while we have laws against recreational drug use, the offenders should be punished. But other countries have decriminalised their use (not their sale or manufacture, just the use) and seen massive drops in drug-related injuries and deaths. I think we need a new plan.