Meredith Music Festival reacts to pill-testing call

Could Meredith Music Festival become one of the state’s first festivals to have pill testing?

Punters at Meredith Music Festival.

More people are likely to die from drug overdoses at festivals until pill testing is introduced, a leading expert says.

Drug policy expert Dr Monica Barratt, a senior research fellow at RMIT University, welcomed state coroner Judge John Cain’s call on Wednesday for the introduction of pill testing.

Dr Barratt said the “unfortunate reality” was that until pill testing was available people would die from drug overdoses at festivals.

“We need to re-think the way we police music festivals,” Dr Barratt said.

“We need to have a healthier response at these environments, so we are not having people who are unsure as to whether to get help.”

Organisers of Meredith Music Festival, held in December, said they would introduce drug and pill testing at the event if the process was legalised.

“We work with a dedicated team from local and statewide police, fire and ambulance, as well as the Golden Plains Shire and independent risk and safety professionals, to continually strengthen our safety plan,” a spokeswoman said this week.

“One of our responsibilities is to provide relevant, reliable, safe and accessible harm-minimisation programs.

“We assess the effectiveness of our programs by how well they help participants make more informed decisions about their own safety and the safety of others.

“If drug checks are made legal in Victoria, we will work with our dedicated team to introduce a relevant, reliable, safe and accessible service for our guests.”

Judge Cain’s recommendation followed an inquest into the 2022 death of a 26-year-old man in Melbourne from a type of highly potent MDMA pill called the Blue Punisher.

Dr Monica Barratt of RMIT says pill testing will save lives.

The Blue Punisher — a small blue pill with a skull design imprinted on it — has gained a reputation internationally for its dangerously high concentrations of MDMA.

Over the last five years, pills featuring the Blue Punisher design have been seized and tested in Australia and overseas and have been found to contain varying amounts of MDMA, including up to five times the MDMA dose usually consumed in non-clinical settings.

Dr Barratt said Judge Cain was the fourth Victorian Coroner to recommend pill testing.

“What is being recommended is not really radical, more than 26 countries now have drug-checking services,” she said.

“We would not be inventing something new here.”

Mental Health Minister Gabrielle Williams said pill testing was not currently on the government’s agenda.

“We have very deliberately embarked upon a health-led response in our alcohol and other drug policy,” she said.

“There are currently no plans for pill testing but given that we have quite a lot of reforms taking place in this area, we’ll continue with that reform agenda (and) continue taking a health-led response and over time, should there be evidence to suggest that there’s more that we need to do, of course as policymakers we look at it but at the moment there are no plans.”

Originally published as Meredith Music Festival reacts to pill-testing call