The ACT government is being urged to introduce Australia’s first ever fixed-site community drug testing facility after the discovery of a number of potentially fatal substances during a pill-testing trial held in Canberra. Pill Testing Australia held its second trial at the Groovin’ the Moo festival in Canberra in April and found seven pills containing the highly toxic chemical N-Ethylpentylone, a drug…

In their official report, PTA have further outlined the trial’s effects. Noticeably, PTA announced an “unintended benefit”: punters who had their pills tested and found unexpected substances would spread word to friends with pills (assumedly from the same batch), who would return with those friends to also get tested. According to the report, this happened “on several occasions […]

“Prohibition is a policy of rejection and of saying we don’t care about drug users. Pill testing shows we take their health seriously. We must acknowledge the current approach is resulting in unintended consequences and instead choose policies that have worked elsewhere. It’s time to get over the stigma and just test the pills.” […]

Deadly substances linked to several mass overdoses around the world were detected at a pill-testing trial at this year’s Groovin The Moo festival in Canberra. A new report into the trial also calls for a pilot fixed site for pill testing in the ACT. The report said 170 substances had been tested for 234 participants during the festival, double the…

In its haste to “do something” in response to their tragic deaths, the NSW government failed to consider harmful consequences that may arise from treating drug-related fatalities as homicide. In fact, my research of how similar laws have operated in the US suggests the new crime of “drug supply causing death” may increase the risk of fatal drug overdoses […]

Pill Testing Australia has released its report on the 2nd Pilot Pill Testing Program that was in pace for the Groovin the Moo Festival in Canberra in April 2019 2nd-Pill-Testing-Pilot-August-2019Download […]

Dr David Caldicott, an emergency medicine specialist, said the increase in arrests and seizures related to drugs like heroin and hallucinogens did not mirror trends seen in hospitals. He said drugs policy in Australia had three key pillars – reducing supply, reducing demand and reducing harm. While it was important to reduce supply, two-thirds of the money spent on drugs…

Strip searches are meant to only be used by officers if they suspect, on reasonable grounds, that it’s necessary “for the purpose of the search” and there are “serious and urgent” circumstances that make it necessary. But the law provides no other criteria to guide police. In a non-policing context, having to perform such non-consensual acts would constitute a serious…

Seattle is undertaking what feels like the beginning of a historic course correction, with other cities discussing how to follow. This could be far more consequential than the legalization of pot: By some estimates, nearly half of Americans have a family member or close friend enmeshed in addiction, and if the experiment in Seattle succeeds, we’ll have a chance to…

ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury said the news that majority of the people attending the pill testing tent were teenagers underlines the positive effect of pill testing. “These are people who don’t necessarily have a lot of information and pill testing does provide that opportunity to access that information,” Mr Rattenbury said. “It […]