Police Float Nightclub Drug Overdose SMS Warning System

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Out on the town next weekend?

You could soon be receiving SMS texts to your smart phone warning of dodgy drugs and overdoses.

Victoria Police are said to be floating the idea in direct response to a recent wave of serious drug overdose incidents, the Herald Sun reports.

Similar to the recent child abduction AMBER alerts and SMS bushfire warnings, the idea was said to have been raised at a Liquor Forum meeting attended by Assistant Commissioner Robert Hill, senior police, an Ambulance Victoria paramedic, emergency doctors and nightclub owners.

There are now tentative plans for the potentially lifesaving initiative to be rolled out in bars and clubs across the state.

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Geoff Munro from the Alcohol and Drug Foundation told the Hit Network that police had a responsibility to pass on warnings of this nature to the public.

"We've had three mass overdoses in Melbourne this year already at nightclubs where people have obviously taken the same drug, and we've had over 20 people overdosing on two occasions putting their lives at risk and putting them into hospital.

"When police know those drugs are on the street and people are likely to use them, it's obviously good sense for police to warn people and a mobile alert system is the way to go.

"Most young people have a mobile phone particularly those who are out nightclubbing, and this is the perfect way to get the message across to a lot of people in a hurry."

'A mobile alert system is the way to go'

Mr Munro believes the technology would also save lives.

"If police have good intelligence about bad drugs it makes sense that they inform the public," he said.

"It could save people's lives and also reduce the profit of those people producing those drugs."

"A mobile alert system is the way to go."