• The benefits of pill testing

    Education is the key. Let’s face it, people are going to do drugs despite all the crackdowns and tut-tutting. It is a fact, whether we like it or not. Each day we spend arguing against pill testing or spend time “exploring” it instead of implementing it is another day that we may lose more lives. […]

  • Why pill testing should be considered as a means to reduce illicit drug use at festivals

    Education and harm minimisation strategies such as pill testing should be considered as a means to reduce the risky behaviour of illicit drug use at large festivals. We need to be talking about it instead of driving discussions about illicit drug use underground. Harm minimisation strategies can create an avenue to start a conversation with young people about what they are…

  • ‘Young people deserve better’: festivals push governments on pill testing

    A protest calling for the introduction of pill testing in NSW is set to be staged in front of the Sydney Town Hall on January 19. The event has  been organised by Reclaim The Streets, political party Keep Sydney Open, harm minimisation group Unharm and anti-drug detection dog campaigners Sniff Off. […]

  • Australian Festival Association: drug policy ‘endangering lives’

    We do not believe that pill-testing is the only answer. But it is a crucial part of a broader harm reduction strategy that prioritises people’s health and safety, over criminality or laws. Encouraging drug abstinence instead of education is out-of-touch, proven to be ineffective and unnecessarily risking lives. Young people deserve better. […]

  • MPs from across the political divide push Berejiklian on pill testing

    A group of cross-party NSW MPs is urging the Premier to commit to a drug summit after the March election, warning that urgent action is needed to stop people dying at music festivals. In a letter sent to the Premier on Tuesday, Liberals’ MP Shayne Mallard, Greens’ MP Cate Faehrmann, Labor’s Jo Haylen and independent MP Alex Greenwich warned the…

  • Festival drug testing a bitter pill for some

    The issue of evidence, as Dr Wodak and others have been at some pains to point out, can easily be addressed by asking the relevant authorities to review the outcomes of pill testing trials in countries such as the Netherlands, Switzerland and Spain, as well as in the ACT. This could be followed by a tightly controlled trial of pill-testing…

  • ‘It would save lives’: Raver presents the case for pill-testing

    Tony Trimingham’s son Damien also fell victim to a fatal overdose – but his view on pill-testing could not be more opposed to Mr Wood’s. He said he believed anything to make people think twice had to be worth trying. “We’ve got to introduce it, it’s a way of saving lives,” he said. […]

  • ‘Encouraging ignorance’: why pill testing should go ahead

    Young people are being told they are not making safe decisions, yet they are denied the information upon which to base these decisions. If giving knowledge is a gift, denying it amounts to a refusal of that person’s humanity. […]

  • Here’s why doctors are backing pill testing at music festivals across Australia

    The members of the Australasian Chapter of Addiction Medicine within the Royal Australasian College of Physicians are the main clinical experts in the field of addiction medicine in this country. Together with the Australian Medical Association and many prominent members of the community with experience in this area we feel this is the time for pill testing to be introduced,…

  • Concerns over pill testing ‘misinformed’

    A leading Queensland civil libertarian has poured cold water on a warning that pill testing could be a legal liability minefield. Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers has entered the pill testing debate saying pill testers could be charged if a person dies from a drug that had been given the OK by a tester. […]