This week on The Drum on ABC TV, I asked advocate for drug reform, Alex Wodak, if he thought the political will would ever come for pill testing at music festivals. He replied: “Harm reduction debates almost always end up with harm reduction winning in the end, but it’s often a big struggle to get there.” […]

Working in healthcare I know the tragic consequences recreational drugs can have. We have a collective moral responsibility to protect people from this, but we are failing. Our young people are being killed with increasing frequency, but we refuse to change policy. They say stupidity is doing the same thing and expecting different results – are we displaying our stupidity,…

“The benefits of pill testing go beyond being able to determine what the chemical make-up of a drug is and providing this level of information,” Ms Lucas said. “When a person has their drug tested at a pill testing tent, they are actively engaged with a health professional to talk about their drug use.” […]

“There is no evidence to show that pill testing encourages drug use, and people who have a substance tested often elect to throw it away when they find out what it really is,” he said. “Drug use has been part of human culture for thousands of years. Pill testing won’t change that, but it will make drug use much more…

‘The war on drugs hasn’t worked in the past 20 years, so it’s time to change to a more compassionate and restorative approach,’ Mr Nash told Stuff. ‘If someone is dealing they will be taken through the justice system. But if it was someone who has one or two pills, you don’t want them to get a criminal record for a bad…

The Age believes, cautiously, that a trial of pill testing at public events involving chiefly young people has merit. We have argued that the debate should be led by evidence rather than simple ideology. On this basis, a well-regulated trial makes sense. […]

Kids who take drugs are not bad kids. Telling them to abstain is not going to stop them experimenting, but telling them what they are actually taking may keep them safer while doing it. […]

“Every time there is an event now, people are asking: why aren’t you providing a pill testing facility? Why are people needlessly dying?” said Gino Vumbaca, who works for one of the organizations involved in last year’s test run, the International Harm Reduction Association […]

The doctor-turned federal MP who once argued the controversial case for Australia’s first heroin injecting room has intervened in the debate over pill-testing, warning political resistance to government-sanctioned drug taking at music festivals was costing young lives. […]

Member for Moggill Christian Rowan, an addiction medicine specialist, said he did not condone drug use but substance misuse was occurring, and pill testing should be considered. […]