‘Betting these kids’ lives’: Mother of child who overdosed at a music festival slams pill testing inaction

The mother of a young woman who died from an overdose at a music festival claims the NSW government is “betting kids’ lives on ‘just say no’” as NSW enters another festival season without pill testing. Alex Ross-King was 19 years old when she overdosed after taking MDMA at the FOMO music festival in 2019. She had taken two capsules before entering the festival because she was scared of being caught by police, a 2019 coronial inquest into the deaths of six people at NSW music festivals found. While Victoria has committed to a pill testing trial over the summer following the success of similar trials in ACT and Queensland, NSW is set to head into another festival season with no such commitment as the state’s highly anticipated drug summit is scheduled for the middle of festival season. Alex’s mother Jennie Ross-King, who has been tirelessly campaigning for drug reform ever since her daughter died, called the NSW government’s refusal to implement pill testing “disheartening”. “They’re betting these kids’ lives on ‘just say no’,” Ms Ross-King said. “I lost my only child from taking drugs, so I do not advocate for it. “But what I advocate for is, if young people are going to do it – or their friends – then arm them with the information to at least be able to be safe and get through that period of their life where they can learn the lesson without dying.” Ms Ross-King said her daughter was “everything” – “full of life”, “silly”, and “beautiful” – but it “shouldn’t matter” to the general public whether her daughter was “well educated” or “had a good work ethic”. “She could have been a horrible, misadventured child and into criminal activity … it shouldn’t matter. She didn’t have to die, and she did,” she said. “She was a human being, as are all these other young people … that are dying from taking drugs because of the action of our government. “They’re preventing the people who do know what they’re doing from providing the services and needs to help them.” Like any mother and daughter, Ms Ross-King said she and Alex “had (their) moments”, “but at the end of the day she was a human being that deserved a chance at life”. “(She) didn’t get that chance because she messed up.” Ms Ross-King slammed NSW Health Minister Ryan Park’s previous comments that pill testing is “not a silver bullet” to stop drug-related deaths, candidly saying there is no such thing. “Pill testing or no pill testing, young people are still going to potentially die. The point is, we’re not doing everything that we can to stop that,” she said. “Pill testing is a measure of harm reduction that we can put in place that will reduce the harms.” Two men died following suspected drug overdoses after attending the Knockout music festival in Sydney last year, while there were also nine urgent medical transfers to hospital from the event. The NSW government has declined the offers of Harm Reduction Australia to run free pill testing trials at music festivals across the state leading up to the drug summit, despite trials being a success in the ACT and Queensland. Evidence gathered by Harm Reduction Australia found pill testing reduces the amount of drugs consumed by individuals, while people were less likely to take a drug if it was proved to be different to what they thought it was. Victoria is implementing a trial this summer after 46 people died from overdoses across the state in 2022. It also comes as paramedics responded to more drug overdoses at festivals in the first three months of 2024 than they did across all of 2023. Harm Reduction Australia president Gino Vumbaca said they have “everything lined up” to run the trial free of charge in NSW, but they haven’t been able to “get the okay” from the state government. Mr Vumbaca said he’s “very concerned” heading into another festival season without pill testing in NSW. “Drug use is still going to occur in festivals. The reality is (people) buy a ticket, they go through security … sniffer dogs … (they’re) pretty committed to using that drug – they’ve gone through all those barriers,” Mr Vumbaca said. “What we say is ‘OK, just pause before you use it, come see us and make sure you know what you’re taking and what to do if it goes wrong’. “We’re like the last line of defence against an overdose at a festival.” On Friday. NSW Health Minister Ryan Park announced former NSW Labor Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt and former NSW Liberal Leader of the Opposition, John Brogden as the Co-Chairs of the upcoming NSW Drug Summit. Mr Park said he looks forward to the “deliberations and findings” of experts following the summit held in Griffith on November 1 and Lismore on November 4, as well as over two additional days in Sydney in December. “I acknowledge the interest from the community in this issue, especially from those experts and frontline workers who witness up close the very real impact of illicit drug use,” Mr Park said. “We are bringing these experts and those who work directly on this issue together through the Government’s drug summit, and we look forward to their deliberations and findings.” In the meantime, Ms Ross-King has launched a not-for-profit organisation, Ark Insights, aimed at helping parents and their children find information on alcohol, drugs, respectful relationships and other things young people have to navigate. “I know that even after Alex went to the angels, I struggled to even find information to try and educate myself before the inquest started,” Ms Ross-King said. “Had (Alex) survived that night, no doubt with some scars somewhere internally on her body or brain, she would have been with me doing this.”