What you are saying and pointing out I think seems interesting. There seems to be a drug and alcohols culture associated with music festivals these days. As youth workers or potential youth workers I think we need to ask what we can do about this culture, how we can stop young people harming themselves. I really think festival organizes nowadays need to put thought and perpetration into limiting the drugs young people take at these festivals or trying to educate them on how to have a good time without taking drugs or binge drinking . There needs to be more security and controls at these festivals along with tents that promote safe drug use . Or is just a culture that we all have be accustomed to and now accept that all people who go to these festivals are drugies and rave heads. Hope I could explain !!

most people drink / take drugs only to heighten their experiences at these festivals. i'm one of those people. i'm not proud to admit it but hopefully i can give you a better insight.

you honestly shouldn't hold prejudice towards people that attend these festivals. fair enough, it's a pretty stupid thing to do, but it's the culture of our generation and there is little stopping it. the only thing under control is how you deal with it.

if people have had a bad reaction to drugs they might avoid seeking help when they think they're going to be judged or chastised for what they've done.

so try and be more forthcoming towards these people. most of them are normal people that you see every day. if you want them to heed your advice about the dangers of drug & alcohol abuse, you need to get on their level.

they're called paramedics, not ambulance drivers, so show some respect. it requires a 3 year degree with another year of training. they deal with these situations with as much objectivity as possible, and so should you.

One idea worth considering is introducing onsite drug testing. And no, I don't mean test to see if the person has taken a drug. There's an organisation in Europe called "Energy Control" which has been performing onsite drug testing at music festivals (most notably BOOM festival in Portugal) which lets users know precisely which chemicals are in their drugs and provides information for safer use. The idea is that punters take their drugs to a particular tent, volunteers take a sample and conduct a chemical test to ascertain what's in the pill/powder and in what quantities. From there, the results are conveyed to the punter and projected as part of a slideshow so that others know what's being sold by dealers. At the same time, safe use guidelines are delivered to punters by experts particular to the subtances in their possession.

Much of the trouble caused by drug use at festivals is due to the impurities in street drugs as well as inconsistency in dose. That, and many users simply don't know enough about contraindications and which mixtures to avoid. Portugal's taken a more sympathetic approach to drug use, shifting the focus to hardline harm minimisation rather than simple prevention and emergency response.

It's unlikely that we'll see such measures in Australia in the near future, but such an approach is definitely something that should be considered, especially once more long term data becomes available from overseas.

There will always be punters who take too much, but the better the information available the more likely people are to make safer decisions regarding their drug use.

More info can be found here: http://www.boomfestival.org/boom2010/2009/09/boom-festival-sets-the-standard-for-psychedelic-emergency-services