Saturday 31 December 2005

Chemically inspired displays of love OUT. Drunken violence IN! IN! IN!

Police unveil new slogan to Melbourne partygoers - “Drop the gear before you get here” 

Police sniffer dogs will be out in force at the annual Summadayze dance festival at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on New Year’s Day in an attempt to stop drug trafficking. Police said there would also be a “significant police presence” inside the Music Bowl and in surrounding areas of the Kings Domain and Royal Botanic Gardens. 

There was a culture among “the dance scene” that illicit drug use at Summadayze was acceptable, Victoria Police superintendent Mick Williams said. “These drugs contain potent mixtures and to, put it bluntly, they are insidious. "

 You could probably argue that the gear they’re referring to only contains potent and insidious mixtures because it’s produced underground, and that a festival full of people off their nut on E would be significantly less danger to national security than 2000 pissed yokels throwing stubbies at each other and belting police on Torquay beach but that’s a debate for another time. 

Alcohol leads to more death, injury and trauma than pretty much anything else but you can still advertise it on TV and sell it at supermarkets. Explain that. I’m not suggesting we suddenly start pumping out regulated soft drugs to balance the equation, but it’s got me FLUMMOXED how they can justify rolling out the entire force to knock over a handful of people carrying pills when the night before will probably be dominated by drunks kicking shit out of each other. 

Remember - if you cop a backhander in the street from some nutter to open 2006 the chances are nobody will be there to nick him because they're getting ready to fight the drug menace by headlocking a hippie. 

There's probably a drug lab on every second street, and people flooding through the airport with packages stuck in their ass and their “war on drugs” has come down to taking out the users. Do people who die in the arse with a heroin overdose get brought back to life and then slapped with an infringement notice for possession? Do the people who get dragged into an emergency ward spewing everywhere because they’ve had four slabs in an hour all end up with fines for being drunk in a public place? 

It’s not that I give half a shit about “the dance scene”, but why are these the only people getting targeted for it? Half of Melbourne will be hoovering coke off mirrors in toilets tomorrow night and get away with it scot free, but you hold a festival and suddenly you’re Nino Brown and the SWAT team is liable to smash through your window and shoot you. What a complete shambles.

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