Once upon a time in the fair land of New South Wales, there was a large festival whereat some people ate poisoned pellets and died.
The ruler of this fair land, Queen Gladys, was aghast and decreed that from that day forward the festivals would be no more.
After that, nobody ever ate poisoned pellets and died again, and they all lived happily ever after.
How's that for a bedtime story, children? Not buying it? How about this one:
Once upon a time the fair land of New South Wales was ruled by a very silly Queen. The subjects of the Queen liked to attend galas, and one day, some people ate poisoned pellets and died.
The Queen declared that from that day on galas would be banned. The people didn't listen to her, and just held their festivals in secret. Some people ate poisoned pellets, but because there were no physicians at the gala because the physicians didn't know about it, the pellet-takers were unable to be helped, and as a result died.
People were very angry because the deaths could have been prevented, and because the land was a democracy, voted the silly Queen and her Band of Merry Simpletons out as soon as they could.
The new ruler of the land knew the galas were lots of fun for many people, and also helped raise money for the merchants in the land, so the galas were reinstated. The ruler also had the wisdom to install special apothecaries at the galas who could test the pellets to determine whether they were more dangerous than normal. When the gala-goers were told whether the pellets had been adulterated with poisons like Borax, or whether they were just compressed Cashmere Bouquet, those gala-goers knew the risks. When things went wrong, there were lots of wise physicians available to help the pellet-takers. The pellet-takers learned their lessons, and the families of the pellet-takers were happy.
And they all lived happily ever after.
Yeah, I like second version. Queen Gladys, er, Premier Berejyklian, bloody stop and THINK for a moment, instead of riding the knee-jerk train. Seriously, your knee jerks like a prisoner riding the lightning in the electric chair! From what I understand, Sydney's party life had already been squashed like a bug, what with the curfew laws. This ludicrous and Draconian measure you're thinking of is NOT going to prevent drug deaths. They will continue, and possibly increase because if a festival has been driven underground, it might be difficult to facilitate the attendance of paramedics at said festival.
Pill testing is available at festivals held overseas, and there is evidence to suggest it actually works as a harm minimisation strategy. Experts in the area, such as Dr Alex Wodak, push most vociferously for the testing to be made available at venues. Is it that difficult to listen to an expert, or are you just a great big ball of obtuse, coated in a crunchy layer of imperception? Yes, I know it's a person's choice to take drugs, and ideally they shouldn't, but here's the reality: they DO! Do you and your Merry Band of Simpletons just not want to help prevent a death, and the subsequent grieving of a family?
How many families lives are destroyed by gambling? Lots. Where's your cry to ban poker machines? What's that I hear? (*typing with one hand because other is cupped to ear in pantomime style*). Crickets. Ooooh, that's right; the government gets income from the poker machines, so we won't ban those, will we?
How many people die on the roads? More than we'd like. I have seen no call for cars to be banned. Furthermore, some of these road deaths are caused by alcohol. Although the nightlife has been all but disintegrated, there has still been no call to actually ban the pubs, clubs, and bottle shops outright.
The festivals are subject to the approval of the local council with jurisdiction over whatever venue is proposed. Yet, here you are wanting to come roaring in like a bull in a china shop, overriding everything and everyone with arsehat ideas that do absolutely fuck-all. Why not, instead of a fruitless ban, an idea right down there with your proposed knocking down and rebuilding of sports stadiums, how about worrying about aforementioned roads, and hospitals, and schools? I'm still not happy that my son came home and asked could he borrow my old battered copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, because his school (a State one) had insufficient copies of the syllabus-decreed text. Is this just not important to you? I'm guessing not.
At a press gathering following the deaths at Defcon1, you emphatically stated, from beneath your hardhat (what's with the hardhat; are you frightened someone's going to drop a house on you, like what happened to the Wicked Witch of the East?), that your government has zero tolerance on drugs. Hey, I'm not a huge fan of drugs, either. But I'm even less a fan of not implementing potential life-saving strategies.
Zero drug tolerance? Add to that zero common sense, and this is somewhat disconcerting.
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