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An 18-year-old man remains critically ill after nine partygoers were taken to hospital following a mass drug overdose at a Melbourne dance party.
Emergency services were called to Festival Hall at 11:00pm on Friday, and eight partygoers were treated by paramedics in a first aid area at the venue as a ninth person collapsed nearby.
The nine patients were taken to various hospitals across inner Melbourne.
They had been attending the I Am Hardstyle event, an electronic dance festival that travels to cities across Europe and South America.
Ambulance Victoria's state health commander Paul Holman said some of the patients were "extremely unconscious" when treated and were "lucky they didn't die on the spot".
"These people were hyperthermic — so extremely hot, they can't regulate their temperature — they were unconscious … unrousable, they needed to be intubated and they needed to be ventilated. They were non-breathing patients."
A Royal Melbourne Hospital spokesperson said four patients were in a critical condition on Saturday morning.
By Saturday evening, an 18-year-old man remained in a critical condition, but the three others were stable.
A 20-year-old man who was treated in St Vincent's Hospital's intensive care unit was also listed as critically ill on Saturday morning, but a spokesperson said he was later discharged.
A 20-year-old woman remains under observation at St Vincent's, and a third patient was discharged overnight.
Another partygoer was treated at the Alfred Hospital and later discharged.
Other patients were being treated at the Western Hospital in Footscray.
Mr Holman said it was not clear what drugs were taken or how they were marketed, but authorities were concerned about "this particular batch" being on the street on a weekend when many dance parties and festivals were planned.
"Clearly these drugs are circulating now around the system," he said.
"Clearly they're dangerous.
"Don't take these drugs, they will kill you.
"These are poisons. They [the users] don't know where they come from, they don't know what they do, and as we saw last night we had nine young people taken to hospital in a serious condition, poisoned by these drugs."
Victorian Greens MP Colleen Hartland, who has been campaigning for pill testing to be made available at festivals and dance parties, said the overdoses once again highlighted the need for such a service.
"People are going to continue to die or be seriously injured," Ms Hartland said.
"This also puts a massive strain on hospitals and ambulances.
"What happens in Europe is people can anonymously give over their drugs, they are tested, and then an authority such as the health department or a police department actually issues timely warnings to people so they know that that particular drug is really dangerous."
Labor MP Geoff Howard, who has also publicly backed pill testing, is planning to attend the Rainbow Serpent festival in rural Victoria this weekend to discuss the idea with drug users and health workers.
The State Government remains opposed to pill testing.
"We'll continue to take advice from Victoria Police about what they need to reduce the harm caused by drugs in the community," a Government spokeswoman said.
Mr Holman said illicit drugs should be thought of as poisons.
"Pill testing is something that comes up quite often. Our view is it's a poison. You can test a poison all you like, it remains a poison."
Police are investigating Friday night's incident.
Topics: drugs-and-substance-abuse, law-crime-and-justice, crime, drug-offences, health, drug-use, arts-and-entertainment, events, west-melbourne-3003, melbourne-3000, vic
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