For as long as drugs have been illegal, attendees have been finding new innovative ways to smuggle ecstasy pills into music festivals, often right under the noses of the authorities there to stop them.
An Australian festival-goer has been caught with Ecstasy pills slathered in Vegemite (a thick, black Australian food spread made from leftover brewers’ yeast extract with various vegetable and spice additives), cling-wrapped to his p***s, while entering the Listen Out music festival in St. Kilda, police say.
Vegemite has a very distinct aroma, but it’s not pungent enough to fool police drug-sniffing dogs. The dogs were not fooled, and police thought it was hilarious.
The man was one of 24 attendees found trying to take drugs into this year’s edition of Listen Out.
“We found several males had the drugs wrapped in plastic and wrapped around their p***s. One smothered his MDMA in Vegemite believing the dog would not be able to detect his drugs. Wrong!” said Port Phillip Acting Inspector Stuart Bailey.
He also added dogs were highly trained to detect illicit drugs and police knew all the “usual hiding places”.
“There’s a fair chance those who have been detected but not found with any drugs had already swallowed them or been in contact with them previously,” he said.
However, Insp Bailey said the majority of the 15,000 attendees this year were well-behaved, with more people in medical tents over headaches and dehydration rather than drug use.
