After an about-turn by the state government, testing of drugs is set to commence in Victoria with the Beyond the Valley music festival in late December. A further nine more festivals are set to feature the pill testing over the summer months as part of an implementation trial.
The pill testing trial will run for 18 months and include mobile sites – like those at music festivals – as well as fixed sites. The drug testing technology available at these services will be able to test the make-up of most drugs, whether they be pills, powders, crystals, or liquids and identify harmful chemicals that can lead to death.
Trained experts will be available during testing to provide personalised and confidential health information to help people make better, safer and more informed decisions about drugs.
The benefits of pill testing
What benefits are we likely to see from the drug testing service? What substances are likely to be found?
According to the Victoria government, there are around 31 drug testing programs currently operating around the world and in Australia, using both fixed-site and event-based models. The evidence from these programs include:
- A study of accidental drug harm at English festivals has shown significantly lower number of harms at festivals that provide pill testing services compared to those that don’t.
- Police and medical services at a UK festival attributed a 95 per cent decrease in drug-related hospital admissions when pill testing was provided.
- In a 2022 study, 86 per cent of consumers in Portugal and 69 per cent in the UK didn’t consume the drug when test results indicated the drug was different than expected.
At CanTEST, Canberra and Australia’s first fixed-site drug testing service, a variety of substances have been discovered during testing. This includes methamphetamines found in what people thought were diet pills and opioids 25 times strong than fentanyl. Other substances to be found include the dangerous nitazenes (up to 1,000 times more potent than morphine) and synthetic cathinones.
Thousands of people to be exposed to pill testing in Victoria
The implementation trial of pill testing in Victoria will see tens of thousands of people exposed to the service. At the Beyond the Valley festival alone, around 35,000 people are expected to attend.
A consortium, including the Youth Support and Advocacy Service, Harm Reduction Victoria and The Loop Australia, will run the service, with support from Melbourne Health and The University of Melbourne.
” We’re aiming to get up to 200 samples a day through the lab,” said Cameron Francis, CEO of The Loop Australia.
The testing equipment can provide results within minutes and identify “almost anything.” However, Mr Francis noted the machines cannot determine the purity of substances and may occasionally miss trace amounts of harmful chemicals.
Mr Francis expressed concern over the rising purity levels of MDMA globally, stating, ” We know that when that purity increases, there’s risks of overdose.”
Permanent drug testing by mid-2025
By mid-2025, a permanent pill testing site is set to open in inner Melbourne in partnership with a community or tertiary health provider.
It’s expected to be set up near nightlife hubs and public transport, to make drug-testing services more accessible to the broader community. Equipped with advanced technology to detect harmful substances, it will also provide confidential health advice, with the goal of enhancing safety and reducing harm across the region.
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Pill testing is set to launch in Victoria at the Beyond the Valley festival. Mobile & fixed sites will provide quick results, ID harmful chemicals and offer health advice.
