Rich, white and attending music festivals: Who police pick to avoid court

Music festival attendees, cocaine users and the affluent were among the few beneficiaries of a scheme designed to divert low-level drug users away from the courts, as police use diversion powers in less than 10 per cent of cases, research has found.

A report by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research concluded that, because of strict eligibility criteria and police culture, officers were shunning a drug diversion scheme introduced by the state government in late February 2024.

The Early Drug Diversion Initiative has faced significant scrutiny over the past two years because of the low numbers of drug users being given criminal infringement notices, requiring them to pay a $400 fine or to attend an hour-long telehealth session.

Cases involving the use or possession of illicit substances clog up the criminal justice system.

The BOCSAR report found 10,475 people ended up in court for these offences in the year to March 2024. The “vast majority” of people found guilty received a fine or had their matter dismissed.

The cost of prosecuting a minor drug offence averages $977 in NSW. The report’s author said a shift towards harm minimisation strategies could have significant benefits for taxpayers.

Using two datasets from between February 2024 and March 2025, the report found police launched proceedings against people for minor drug offences in 11,751 events (excluding cannabis, which is covered by a different scheme).

Of those, less than 10 per cent resulted in the issuing of a criminal infringement notice.

The report found 72 per cent of individuals failed one of the scheme’s six criteria points. More than one-third of those met six of the seven conditions required for an infringement notice, but in 42 per cent of cases, that was because of a concurrent offence.

Officers diverted only 22 per cent of drug users who were eligible for the scheme.

The report’s author noted the scheme’s criteria narrowed access, attributing to police discretion the low number of eligible users avoiding court. The analysis found individuals from the most advantaged areas avoided court considerably more than others, as did those who were caught with cocaine and MDMA.

People caught at festivals were 33 percentage points more likely to avoid court than those detected elsewhere. Similarly, individuals possessing drugs in the most punitive police area commands were 60 percentage points more likely to receive a court notice than those in the most lenient police area commands.

“The fact that Aboriginal people, as well as people from low [socioeconomic status] areas, are more likely to receive a [court attendance notice] raises the question of whether EDDI is being implemented equitably,” the author wrote.

The factors which influenced whether an eligible person was diverted were whether they had a prior criminal record, the type of drug involved, and whether the offence was detected at a music festival. These characteristics were more common among non‑Aboriginal people and people from more affluent areas.

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