The leading academic, who contributed information on medical management at music festivals for the globally cited Oxford Handbook of Addiction Medicine, also helped create the NSW Health guidelines on festival harm reduction published earlier this year. Loading In a statement tendered to the NSW Coroners Court, Dr Brett said there was some evidence the presence of police and sniffer dogs didn't reduce drug-taking at festivals and users "may be more likely" to consume drugs "upon becoming aware of police ... increasing the risk of toxicity." Dr Brett said in his statement he believed pill testing to be an "important component" of harm reduction in the music festival environment. "However, this will only potentially provide harm reduction for the proportion of people attending the service," he said.

Asked by counsel assisting the coroner, Peggy Dwyer, whether he had communicated this in drafting the NSW Health guidelines, he replied he hadn't. "Part of the reason for that was around, the sensitivity around the Ministry of Health and legal sensitivities in that, because you know it's not currently legal to do that in NSW," he said. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has repeatedly voiced her opposition to pill testing, insisting earlier in the week that while the state government needed to ensure more lives were not lost at festivals, her strongest message was ''don't take illegal substances''. NSW Police Detective Chief Inspector Gus Viera has told an inquest police should have the power to shut events down. Credit:Dean Sewell Mr Tran's death and those of Alex Ross-King, 19, Joshua Tam, 22, Joseph Pham, 23, Diana Nguyen, 21, and Callum Brosnan, 19, are being examined by the Coroners Court to prevent further deaths of festivalgoers in NSW.

Detective Chief Inspector Gus Viera, who led the police operation at the event where Mr Tran fatally overdosed, replied, "no," when asked during the inquest if he could see any positive aspects to music festivals for young people. "As a father to two daughters, I wouldn’t let them go," the commander of the Region Enforcement Squad in Wetherill Park told the inquiry. "I’m not a fan at all." When pressed by Ms Dwyer, on whether young people getting together to socialise and exercise through dance could be seen as positive, he replied, "if you put it that way". But when Ms Grahame asked him if he wanted music festivals shut down, he responded that he did.

Among a list of recommendations, Inspector Viera said he wanted legislation giving a senior police officer the power to close down an event where public safety is at risk. Loading He also said he wanted to see the duration of music festivals to be reduced to between six to eight hours and better lighting at events. The court heard on Thursday the licensee for the venue approached Inspector Viera at 11pm on the night of Knockout Circuz, saying the medical providers wanted the event shut down. The officer told the inquest Event Medical Services director Mike Hammond, who was contracted to treat patrons on the night, said he had "run out of everything" despite doubling what he expected he needed.

Mr Hammond said that if he had any more "walk-ups" he wouldn't be able to treat them, the inquest heard. A decision was made during a meeting of stakeholders to keep the event going, but the Inspector said he questioned why "these marathon events" were allowed to run for so long. DanceWize NSW coordinator Erica Franklin said it was normal for festivalgoers to run a "gauntlet" of sniffer dogs. Credit:Dean Sewell The court heard that 298 patrons were searched after being detected by sniffer dogs, with 55 people being charged with possession and a further six being charged with supply. Inspector Viera said he always tried to get as many dogs as he could for festival operations to catch both suppliers and drug users.