New powers could be about to be granted to Victorian police officers, giving them the ability to conduct searches on festival patrons without cause, if a new round of changes are introduced.

As ABC reports, Victoria Police have expressed concern about the rate of drug use and overdoses happening at music festivals, and is in discussion with the State Government to broaden the scope of powers granted under the Major Sporting Events acts to also cover certain problematic music festivals.

Victorian Minister for Police Lisa Neville has told that “bush doofs” and festivals that have been particularly problematic in recent years would be the main target of the increased police powers, although they could theoretically be applied to any music event.

“There would be designated events or festivals, so it’s not every single festival like Moomba that it would occur,” she said.

“It’s all about trying to reduce harm, we know there are certain festivals that have had a long history of overdoses and … large numbers of ambulances having to be called out serious harm being caused to young people.”

“We’ve got a really big issue in some of our bush doof raves out in the country, where there’s often very little organisation and very little safety features as part of those raves,” she said.

The powers will allow police to search festival-goers without the need of a reason – for instance, a reaction from a drug dog.

Perhaps, rather than handing police the invasive power to search whomever they please at will, local governments should be working closely with these festivals to ensure that the required organisation and safety features are in place.

In fact, the introduction of pill testing could be one of the best ways of all to tackle the rate of drug-related harm and fatal overdoses at Australian music events, rather than treating everyone – drug users or otherwise – as criminals.

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