A young man has been arrested and charged with supplying drugs to one of the two men who died after attending the Knockout Outdoor festival in Sydney over the weekend.
New South Wales police arrested the 23-year-old at Sydney airport at 4.20pm on Monday.
“During a search of the man, police located and seized $13,535 in cash to undergo forensic examination,” a police spokesperson said.
The Victorian man was taken to Mascot police station where he was charged with supplying a prohibited drug causing death and dealing with proceeds of crime less than $100,000.
He has been refused bail and will appear in court again in November.
The arrest was made after police began investigating following the death of a 21-year-old at St Vincent’s Hospital early on Sunday morning.
He was one of two men who died after attending the event.
Authorities are yet to determine whether the deaths of the men were related to drugs. Police were waiting on the results of autopsies.
The deaths have sparked calls for pill testing across the country, which the NSW and Victorian governments have largely rejected.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said pill testing was not a “silver bullet” and it would not stop all deaths at festivals. He would not rule out ever introducing the practice.
“Everybody is thinking of those families who are going through a terrible set of circumstances,” Minns said on Tuesday.
“In relation to pill testing, there’s no silver bullet here. I need to make sure that when decisions are made about festival safety, which is our primary concern … it’s done with the full information on the table and we’ll learn from other jurisdictions as well.”
He also responded to a plea made by Jen Ross-King on Monday after her 19-year-old daughter, Alex Ross-King, died from an MDMA overdose at Fomo festival in 2019.
“She’s gone through hell and I completely understand her perspective,” Minns said.
“If I thought that this was a silver bullet that would solve deaths at festivals, of course, I would take it.”
A NSW coroner in late 2019 recommended the state introduce pill testing. Coroner Harriet Grahame found “there was significant evidence” that “intensive and punitive drug policing operations” were increasing drug-related risks and harm.
The government has repeatedly said it will look at the issue as part of its promised drug summit, despite failing to set a date for the forum.
Queensland announced in January it would introduce pill testing at mobile and fixed sites after the success of trials in Canberra.
The weekend deaths also sparked questions in Victoria including to the state’s new minister for mental health, Ingrid Stitt, who said the new Allan government had no plans to trial pill testing in the state.
Asked by Greens MP, Aiv Puglielli, whether the state would consider introducing pill testing after the deaths in Sydney, Stitt said: “Any loss of life as a result of this kind of incident is really tragic.”
“I want to be very clear, though: the Allan Labor government has no plans to trial pill testing,” she told the legislative council question time.
“We acknowledge absolutely that we need to take a harm minimisation approach to drug use and indeed alcohol use as well.”
Stitt, who was appointed to the portfolio on Monday, said the government had allocated $370m in the latest budget to alcohol and other drug services, which included harm reduction programs, such as Dancewize.
Over the past six years, four Victorian coroners have recommended the state introduce a pill-testing service in an effort to prevent people dying from accidental drug overdoses.
Most recently coroner John Cain Jr made the recommendation in September after an investigation into the death of a 26-year-old man from an MDMA pill known as the Blue Punisher at a festival in 2022.
