Oz festivalgoer busted – after writing his name on drugs
A man was arrested at an Australian music festival after police identified him as the owner of a bag of MDMA – because he’d written his name and phone number on it.
The 21-year-old man, from Dalby, Queensland, was detained at Maroochydore Music and Visual Arts Festival on 26 August after police sniffer dogs discovered a ziplocked bag containing the party drug on his person.
The hapless festivalgoer forfeited any plausible deniability as to the ownership of the drugs when, according to Queensland Police Service senior constable Ben Cole, officers made the “surprising” discovery that the bag had “[Name]’s MDMA, if found call [number]” scrawled on it marker pen. “One can never be too careful,” jokes Cole.
The man will appear in Maroochydore magistrates’ court on 29 September on drug possession charges.
“One can never be too careful”
More than 6,300 people attended the one-day festival, which was headlined by local heroes Alison Wonderland, Bernard Fanning, the Presets and Gang of Youths.
Police made 52 drug-related arrests at the festival, although Maroochydore police’s Matt Robertson said attendees were, on the whole, well behaved. “Unfortunately however, several individuals were spoken to relating to drug matters,” said Senior Sergeant Robertson.
A recent study analysing more than 25,000 records from PillReports.net found Australia’s ecstasy is among the least pure in the world, with pills containing on average just 16% MDMA.
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.