Two men died after leaving a dance music festival at Sydney Showground on Saturday, spurring renewed calls for the rollout of an ACT-style drug-testing regime in the state.
Police on Tuesday charged a Melbourne man with supplying the drug that killed one of the men, a 21-year-old who later died in hospital.
While the precise circumstances of both deaths were still unclear, Premier Chris Minns said it was a "terrible situation" for the families who had lost their loved-ones.
The introduction of pill testing for festivals would not be a perfect solution and the use of drugs like MDMA, or ecstasy, in hot conditions where people were liable to become severely dehydrated was a "toxic and extremely dangerous mix", he said on Tuesday.
"Pill testing is not going to stop that from happening and 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," he said.
The ACT introduced a fixed pill-testing site in July last year as part of a trial due to run until the end of 2024, while Queensland earlier this year paved the way for fixed and mobile drug-testing sites to be introduced.
NSW is due to hold a drugs summit next year to consider the use of pill-testing sites, among other harm-reduction measures.
Advocates for reform have called for immediate changes to prevent more deaths over the summer festival season.
Jen Ross-King, whose teenage daughter Alex died after taking a cocktail of two MDMA capsules, alcohol and energy drinks before a festival in 2019, on Monday begged for a policy shift to ensure "no one else loses their child".
Mr Minns said NSW would learn from other jurisdictions and he was not ruling out introducing a similar pill-testing trial in the state.
But investigations into previous drug-related festival deaths had shown the cause was not necessarily people receiving a "compromised substance" but rather a dangerously high dose of MDMA, he said.
"If I thought that (introducing pill testing) was a silver bullet that would solve deaths at music festivals, of course I would take it, but when it comes to toxicity, when it comes to MDMA and ecstasy use, there's no safe drug-taking at festivals or anywhere else," he said.
Melbourne man, Trong Ha Nguyen, 23, faced a Sydney court on Tuesday, accused of supplying the prohibited drug that caused the death of Edward Lui on the weekend.
Mr Lui attended the Knockout Outdoor festival at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday before an ambulance was called to his city hotel. He died in hospital early on Sunday.
Nguyen was stopped at Sydney Airport on Monday afternoon and later charged with supplying a self-administered prohibited drug causing death.
He was also accused of dealing with the proceeds of crime after being found with $13,500 in cash.
Nguyen was refused bail to reappear in court on November 30.
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