The organisers behind some of Australia’s biggest music festivals, including Splendour In The Grass, Falls Festival, Groovin’ The Moo and Laneway, have written to state and territory governments calling for pill testing trials and slamming the country’s current approach to illicit drug use as dangerous and “out-of touch”. […]

Dr Caldicott said Pill Testing Australia has plans to implement testing at more festivals this year, but they will only work in jurisdictions where police allow it. “It’s not our job to undermine law enforcement,” Dr Caldicott said. “We won’t provide this service unless we have a statement in writing from law enforcement that this will be tolerated for the…

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. […]

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…

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. […]

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. […]

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…

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. […]

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. […]