Victoria Police have labelled Rainbow Serpent a "fiasco" following a string of drug and sexual assault charges at the festival in Lexton last weekend.

Inspector Bruce Thomas said the festival should count its blessings, considering nobody died at the hands of a drug driver leaving the festival.

It was a miracle that no one was killed on our roads given the number of drug drivers departing from the festival."

Vic Police say 40 Rainbow Serpent punters were picked up by roadside drug-testing at the festival. Other charges included:

4 x sexual assault

3 x theft

1 x theft from motor vehicle

1 x criminal damage to motor vehicle

1 x unlawful assault upon two security staff

1 x drink driver

Victoria Police did not say they would seek to shut down Rainbow Serpent, but said a "discussion" would be raised with "local government members and festival organisers at the annual event debrief."

A day before Rainbow Serpent kicked off, festival organisers warned ticket-holders against drug-driving in a post on their facebook page.

“In Victoria roadside drug testing does not test for impairment. You may feel completely fine to drive and still fail the test. DO NOT DRIVE if you feel impaired or if you could have detectable drugs in your system!”

Inspector Thomas did not estimate the amount of punters who used drugs at the festival, but said the “sheer number” was “frightening”.

“Something has to change.

“We know there are obvious economic benefits to hosting an event such as this in our community.

“But the question remains as to whether the risks to public safety outweigh the economic benefit."

But toxicologist and pill-testing advocate David Caldicott, who attended Rainbow Serpent for academic purposes, says the police’s response was a political one - and does not reflect attitudes that authorities had at the time.

Skip Twitter Tweet FireFox NVDA users - To access the following content, press 'M' to enter the iFrame. Police politicisation. I was there, and attended the safety briefings. Police had no concerns at that time. https://t.co/YUHrmvQOMP — David Caldicott (@ACTINOSProject) January 28, 2016

In a statement issued by Rainbow Serpent on Tuesday, Victoria Police Sergeant Ian Billing praised the festival. "I have to say we are very impressed with the organiser’s emergency management of the festival."

Rainbow Serpent director Tim Harvey said punters stayed safe. "“I think, in general, our patrons over the entire 19 years have been generally very well behaved and have really taken on board our message to take care of each other while having fun.”

Tim Harvey said although one in eight drivers out of 300 leaving Rainbow Serpent returned positive drug results, those numbers were consistent with results from other events in Victoria. "It’s a matter of public record that police roadside testing around Melbourne over the Grand Final weekend returned similar results.

"In fact, one in three drivers in just one suburb alone were found to be impaired that weekend but no one is calling for the Grand Final to be banned.”

Pill testing at festivals

Victoria Police's strong reaction to drug use at Rainbow Serpent follows continued calls to launch pill-testing at festivals in Australia by harm-minimisation campaigners.

NSW Minister for Police Troy Grant spoke to Hack in December last year, ruling out the possibility of pill-testing at festivals in the state.

"If [drug testers] are in possession of an illegal substance then law enforcement is duty bound to arrest them. You'd need some kind of amnesty arrangement."

Inspector Bruce Thomas said it wasn’t the first time police had concerns over Rainbow Serpent, and that they were once again left “picking up the pieces”.

Do you think Rainbow Serpent should continue? Let us know in the comments.