30 Veld Music Festival Attendees Hospitalized Due To Overdose
Veld Music Festival took place in Toronto this past weekend and finds itself in the news for the wrong reasons. There were reports of 30 people being brought to the hospital due to overdosing. In an interview with Global News, Paramedic Services Supt. Kim McKinnon stated that they were all “taken in minor to serious, but not life-threatening condition.” Mckinnon also stated that the number is in line with other festivals of similar size.
According to Toronto officials, the city has been dealing with a spike in fatal overdoses in recent history. Toronto police issued a warning that drugs were found laced with Fentanyl, causing six people to die from a suspected overdose and 20 to be hospitalized late last month.
These overdoses urged Veld’s parent company INK Entertainment to let out a statement in the days leading to the event letting attendees know they “would allow visitors to carry naloxone in either injectable or spray form so long as they reported it to private on-site medical staff.” Naxalone is a drug used to reverse the effects of an overdose and has been used by the Toronto Paramedic Service for over a year now.
The idea behind the statement is that if someone chooses to ingest drugs, they should at least be prepared. It is a smart move on the festival’s part because it is almost impossible to stop people from smuggling drugs to a festival. As HARD creator Gary Richards put it, “At the end of the day, you’re trying to keep out a Tic Tac, so no matter how many millions of dollars we throw at it, somebody’s going to put something into their body that we can’t control.” Instead of completely focusing on keeping the drugs out, festivals should also be focusing on drug awareness and making sure that people know what they’re doing and are equipped, and able to handle a situation that goes badly.
