News
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‘Lots of parents scared’: mother of music festival reveller who died takes control
The grieving mother of festivalgoer Alex Ross-King is appealing to parents to ‘‘have a conversation with your kids that accepts reality’’ in a social media campaign about harm minimisation and drugs. Jennie Ross-King, whose 19-year-old daughter died after consuming almost three MDMA capsules, said the campaign was aimed at arming…
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‘A chance to live’: Coroner calls for second Sydney injecting room
A NSW coroner has called for a second medically supervised injecting room in Sydney, saying politics shouldn’t stand in the way of “sound health policy” after a young man died of a heroin overdose in a hospital toilet. Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame said Amaru Bestrin, 25, who cleaners discovered…
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ANU Independent Evaluation of Pill Testing Australia Pilot Program Released
The evaluation confirms that the Australian front of house pill testing model developed by Pill Testing Australia reduces the harm for people that may engage in drug use at festivals. It also vindicates our own belief and confidence in the model we can deliver. Media-Release-10th-Dec-2019-2Download […]
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No pill-testing trial for Queensland music festival season
Dr Caldicott said health policy should be based on research, not opinion. “Telling young people not to take drugs is about as useful as telling them not to have sex before marriage,” he said. “We obviously need to do something new because we have a whole generation of young people…
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Personal drug use and possession should be decriminalised, former Supreme Court justice argues
The criminalisation of illicit drugs is causing more harm than good, a prominent former judge has said, calling for criminal offences relating to personal drug possession to be abolished. […]
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Another Young Life Lost at a Music Festival: It’s Time for Pill Testing
Over the coming months, music festivals will face much higher scrutiny than ever before, particularly in light of findings of last year’s coronial inquest. The NSW government remains under increasing pressure to change its current tactics for policing drugs at music festivals, particularly its stance on pill-testing as a harm…
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2nd Dec 2019 Media Release
Pill Testing Ambassador & Community Service Announcementhttps://mailchi.mp/350223bc99ce/media-announcement-2nd-december-2243025 […]
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Renewed push for pill-testing in more Australian states following latest festival death
A year-long parliamentary inquiry in Western Australia has recommended that pill-testing be introduced in the state and sniffer dogs be dispensed with. It follows a similar call in New South Wales in spring and current pushes in Victoria and Tasmania. This weekend marked serious alarm as summer kicked off with…
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Festival regulations could turn Victoria into the next NSW
There is an unfair expectation on music festivals to go beyond what any police force or government have been able to do and stamp out drugs. And yet authorities refuse to listen to the evidence and expertise of the nation’s health bodies, the NSW coroner, the many parents of those…
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Frontline doctors urge Premier to trial pill testing, end strip searches for drugs
More than 20 heads of department at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital have urged the Premier to scrap strip-searching and adopt a pill-testing trial amid an anecdotal rise in the number of panic ingestions at music festivals. The unprecedented appeal from senior staff at the frontline hospital for drug and alcohol…