This weekend, tens of thousands of people in Sydney will celebrate Mardi Gras, while up to 15,000 music lovers will head to Yours & Owls Festival in Wollongong, where, for the first time ever in NSW, drug checking services will be available to help keep people safe and save lives.
But drug checking alone isn’t enough if people are still being intimidated by a heavy police presence and drug dogs.
We know cops and dogs don't stop people using drugs, they just make people engage in riskier behaviour like swallowing all their pills at once to avoid being caught.
At the first pill testing trial in Victoria at the Beyond the Valley festival, the police made the decision to not use drug dogs.
NSW must do the same if they’re serious about reducing drug harm and saving lives.