Unsurprisingly, drug festivals cause drug deaths, by Tim Blair.

Let’s quickly get one thing straight. The Defqon. 1 outdoor event at which two young people died on the weekend was not a music festival where a few attendees took drugs.

Instead, it was more like a drug festival where music happened to be playing.

The numbers support this view. Two people dead from apparent drug overdoses. Three others in critical condition. More than a dozen requiring hospital treatment.

Some 700 sought medical assistance at the event itself. Nearly 70 people were found in possession of drugs. Ten of those were charged with supplying.

These figures all point to an event where drug-taking was central rather than peripheral behaviour. …

The character of the Greens:

Curiously, a number of the Premier’s critics are usually among the most ban-happy people imaginable.

The Greens, for example, want to ban coal mining, coal-fired power plants, live sheep exports, plastic bags, the internal combustion engine, political donations, greyhound racing, uranium mining, helium balloons and fast-food advertising, among many other processes and products. You name it, the Greens want to ban it.

But show the Greens an event with a proven and tragic track record of death and ruin, and any talk of a ban is suddenly off-limits.