Illicit Drug Use at Music Festivals in Australia

Running head: ILLICIT DRUG USE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

ILLICIT DRUG USE1
Introduction:
Drug use at a music festival has become a public health safety concern In Australia
which has led to a number of the fatalities recent years. In 2005, 52% of the festival
attendees had taken illicit drugs where the majority of the individuals of 20 to 29. As
discussed by Mohr et al. (2018) the risk associated with illicit drugs such as ecstasy, cocaine
include seizers, multi-organ failure and reduction in normal cognitive function. Because of
the massive difference between the prevalence of drug use in festival attendees and the
general population, it can be said that adolescents attending these festivals are more prone to
the harmful effect of drug abuse (Gjersing et al., 2019). This paper will critically appraise a
research journal and reflect on a case study in the following paragraphs.
Part A:
Authorship:
The authors of the paper include Niamh Day, Joshua Criss, Benjamin Griffiths,
Shireen Kaur Gujral, Franklin John-Leader, Jennifer Johnston and Sabrina Pit. The
researchers involved in designing the study and from the UWS Human Research Ethics
Committee (H11327), they obtained ethical approval.
Research question:
In order to investigate the impact of these drugs, the researchers designed two
research questions. The first research question is what are the pattern and proportion of the
illicit drug used by festival attend and number of attitude they show towards drug checking
services at the music festival.
The second question is what is the influence of these drug checking services on the
behaviour of desired drug consumption?
The rationale behind designing these research questions is that a significant number of
individuals with the habit of using the illicit drug are experiencing the fatal effect of drug use
(Palamar, Acosta & Cleland, 2018). Hence, these two research questions will assist in
investigate the attitude of adults and adolescents towards the drug check services and effect
on intended drug.
Research design:

ILLICIT DRUG USE2
In the article, day et al. (2018), have justified research design in the section of
methodology, where a detailed description of selection criteria for participants. Here, a mixed
method has been undertaken by researchers to address the research question such as
quantitative and qualitative method. Brannen (2017), highlighted that mixed method allows
researchers to obtain emotional as well as statistical data which further improve the validity
of the study. Hence, in order to address the research question discussed above, this research
design is appropriate.
Research method:
In order to investigate the proportion and pattern of illegal drug use and impact of
drug testing services on the behaviour of drug uses, day et al. (2018), recruited the festival
attendees as respondents from the major Australian music festival in 2016. The inclusion
criteria for the study was festival attendees of 18 to 30 years. After selection, a total of 642
respondents were recruited in the study. A paper-based survey had been undertaken by
researchers in order to collect data. Before collecting data, participants were asked to provide
an information statement along with the purpose of the study. Greenhalgh et al. (2018), stated
that the survey is the most accurate quantitative study for gaining information from a large
number of population within a short period of time. Hence, it is an appropriate method of
collecting data. At the end of the survey, researchers asked an open-ended question such why
they never questioned the content of drugs. In order to analyse the data, SPSS version 22 as
well as t-test, were used. As discussed by Imhof et al. (2016), SPSS is the most accurate
software for analysing the data within a short period of time. The researcher conducted a
thematic analysis in order to interpret the data of the open-ended question which is the best
suitable method of generating qualitative data into themes (Wang et al., 2017). Hence, the
data analysis method is justified for conducting research successfully.
Results and limitations:
The study conducted by Day et al. (2018) answered the research questions which
guided the entire study. The findings of the research showed that the drug checking services
play a crucial role in reducing the harm associated with consuming illicit drugs at the music
festival since the services reduce the behavior of drug consumption. The result suggested that
92.8% of the respondents who were attending the festival used illegal drugs where 66.7%
took MDMA and 51.2% had taken cocaine. Hence, drug checking services are useful and
mostly preferred by women (Day et al., 2018). The researchers showed that the majority of