Professor Caldicott said it would be “lovely” to see a statement of support from the RACGP, even though president Dr Harry Nespolon and Hester Wilson, chair of the college’s Specific Interests Addiction Medicine network, were already on the record as backing pill-testing. Dr Nespolon said while it wasn’t a perfect method, no test was going to provide perfect quality control…

Dr Caldicott said the success in Canberra was a result of the strong relationship between PTA and GTM organisers. “It important to say we have built trust in both directions with Groovin the Moo,” he said. “We love working with them and have absolute trust in the way GTM runs its festival. […]

A study by RMIT University criminology researcher Peta Malins found dog squads are failing to deter drug-taking because festivalgoers are “preloading” or swallowing pills in a hurry before they are stopped. She said the implications of being searched by police during drug detection dog operations went beyond short-term public humiliation. […]

“We will have a number of options about the extent to which pill testing is a regular feature of music festivals here in the ACT or potentially a more regular feature of our drug policy and harm minimisation approach, which can include funding provided to Pill Testing Australia,” Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris said. […]

Mr Harper was one of several MPs who travelled to the ACT for a pill-testing demonstration one day before the trial. “There’s interest there (in pill testing); I wouldn’t have gone down there if there wasn’t,” he said. “After 25 years as a paramedic, having transported people out of our own Groovin the Moo festival … there is harm minimisation…

Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drugs Council of Tasmania chief executive Alison Lai said it was time for Tasmania’s discussion to move away from whether pill-testing worked, to how it could help save lives. “Pill-testing is first and foremost a health service, staffed by qualified medical professionals,” she said. […]

Seven substances presented contained n-ethylpentylone, which could have potentially fatal effects, and all seven of them were discarded according to the patrons’ wishes. Now if this isn’t proof that pill testing works, we’re not too sure what is. But, alas, it’s still not enough for Gladys. Via The Music, Berejiklian spoke to 7 News and said there’s still no evidence that pill testing…

 “Pill Testing Australia is a not-for-profit, we’re only looking at cost recovery,” says PTA co-founder, Gino Vumbaca. The organisation is crowdfunding to run further pill-testing trials at music festivals, as well as exploring the use of public subscriptions and promoter-based funding. PTA has ruled out charging festivalgoers for the service. […]

Speaking to Sunrise this morning, pill testing advocate Dr David Caldicott said he was pleased with the results, which indicated that festival-goers desperately want more information on what they’re consuming. “There was no hesitation for binning the more dangerous products,” he said. “One thing that should be emphasised is that when they were told about the potential hazards, many were…

More than 230 festival-goers were reported to have used the pill-testing service, with seven substances found to contain the potentially lethal n-ethylpentylone. All but one of those who were told their drugs contained the dangerous substance dumped them in amnesty bins provided by the pill-testing service, while one person said they planned to dump it. […]