Extra paramedics won't be sent to upcoming Gold Coast Supercar and schoolies events despite heightened fears of a mystery drug which left one man fighting for his life and 15 others in hospital over the weekend.
Police are awaiting toxicology tests to identify the substance which has resulted in users hallucinating and exhibiting bizarre behaviour.
It comes at a concerning time on Queensland's party strip, with tens-of-thousands expected to flock to the region's nightspots in the coming weeks for the Gold Coast 600 motor race and end-of-year school celebrations.
Drug users were spotted jumping on furniture, running into traffic and swimming in a canal before being taken to hospital.
A dedicated paramedics team has already been rostered for this weekend's V8 Supercars series leg.
Queensland Ambulance senior operations manager Stephen Burns says nothing will change for the Supercars event or at next month's schoolies festival compared to previous years.
"We are well prepared," he said.
"This is very much about business as usual."
The hospitalisations stunned Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
"I've actually been completely shocked by this new drug," Ms Palaszczuk said.
"The doctors just do not know what they're dealing with. Stay away, don't touch it, don't do drugs."
Mr Burns said the man in a critical condition was non-compliant and aggressive when paramedics arrived at the Islander Hotel in Surfers Paradise early on Sunday morning.
"Because of that problem of safety, our paramedics had to then give him some medication to help sedate him a little bit," he said.
It's unknown whether the man in his 20s stopped breathing.
Australian Greens leader Senator Richard Di Natale has called for partygoers to be able to test their pills, after some patients reportedly claimed they thought they had been given an MDMA tablet.
"We need to start looking at it as a health issue," he said.
Police have warned it could be weeks before the exact nature of the drug in question is known.
But there's speculation the 16 patients took a stimulant made from Alpha-PVP, also known as flakka.
That drug - a crystalline white or pink substance resembling gravel - can be swallowed, smoked, snorted, injected or vaporised to produce the same psychoactive effects as methamphetamine and ecstasy.
Users report feelings of euphoria, high-level anxiety, an elevated body temperature and heart rate, jaw clenching and vomiting and the symptoms can last for hours.
The drug has been blamed for serious incidents in the US.
National co-ordinator of schoolies support network Red Frogs, Andy Gourley, hoped the fact there were no further reports on Sunday night meant a lesson had already been learned.
"Schoolies need to be even more vigilant to not get caught up in the artificial atmosphere and do something you might regret for the rest of your life," he said.
