Pill testing no cure-all, but worth exploring, say experts

Humans have always taken drugs, and the experts say it won’t stop. But we can reduce the harm they cause — so, should we look at pill testing?

• OPINION: Pill testing at music festivals could reduce drug use

It’s as predictable as hot cross buns going on sale just after Christmas — the summer music festival season sparking debate over pill testing versus the “war on drugs”.

Governments talk tough on drugs — the State Government is against testing and for sniffer dogs — while academics, doctors, and many of those on the ground say there’s no way you’ll stop people trying them.

If we can’t stop the drugs we have to stop the deaths, they say.

In fact all the experts — from the World Health Organisation to the Australian Medical Association — say harm minimisation is the only way to deal with drugs. And it’s not just kids being kids. It’s humans being humans.

In Sumeria, which is now part of Iraq, the locals called poppies Hul Gil, the “joy plant”.

Alcohol has been part of human society for as long as recorded history — and if the number of animals who get drunk on fermented fruit is anything to go by, probably before that. Vikings used cannabis to ease the pain of childbirth, shamans and priests have long used psychedelics.

And now young people — and some not-so-young — have access to a huge range of drugs, with more being invented all the time.

Just last week in Adelaide, a concerned father said his son overdosed on a “heroin slushie”, made by mixing medications, soft drink and a “particular lolly”.

And there has been a spate of deaths and overdoses already this festival season, sparking warnings about dangerous “orange” pills in circulation.

Australian pill testing trials have seen festival-goers sign a waiver before volunteering a sample of their stash. They then talk to an educator about the limitations of the testing process. The pill is then tested and another educator discusses the results with the festival-goer.

A sniffer dog with its handler at the gates of the FOMO Festival in Adelaide on Sunday. Picture: AAP / Emma Brasier

Testing of pills — which people mostly believe to be ecstasy or MDMA — finds all sorts of fillers such as caffeine, but can also find dangerous additions.

Politicians argue that testing normalises drug-taking and gives people a false sense of safety. But others say without it, people still take drugs without knowing what’s in them.

Flinders University Professor Ann Roche, who also happens to be the director of the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction, says people have always used substances to “alter the way we feel”.

“Also we’re risk takers,” she said.

That’s why a “war on drugs” or telling people to “just say no” doesn’t work.

Harm minimisation is accepting that drug use is inevitable so the priority becomes working on ways to stop people dying from drugs. Policies might include clean injecting rooms, shocking photos on cigarette packets — and pill testing.

Prof Roche draws a parallel to speeding.

“If we said to everybody ‘do not speed’ and thought that was a sufficient message, then we wouldn’t do things like put speed bumps in place, and stop signs,” she said.

“People do speed.”

Police with a sniffer dog at the FOMO Festival in Elder Park on Sunday. Picture: AAP / Emma Brasier

Prof Roche said researchers are “still building the evidence base” to show that pill testing works but that there was good logic behind it — and pointed to how Australia got ahead of the HIV epidemic by bringing in needle exchanges.

There was no proof at the time that would work, but plenty of logic — and in the end it was proved to be an effective, progressive option.

“I think a trial is a really sensible thing to do,” she said.

“Given that we know people continue to use drugs — and what’s happening around the world with the nature of drugs is that there are continual changes and the emergence of new psychoactives.

“So it’s difficult for us to keep track of the drugs that are available on the market.”

Testing should pick up some deadly potencies and concoctions, keeping people alive.

“That’s the aim,” she said.

Drug use expert Dr Rob Ali, a University of Adelaide Associate Professor, warns that pill testing is not the “panacea” some might hope.

“It’s a complicated space. In principle I think that it is worth exploring. It does have limitations,” he said.

He specifically warns that testing can’t account for individual reactions — a drug that a friend takes without harm might be dangerous for someone else. There can also be huge variability in potency.

He said so far pill testing has led to people not consuming dangerous drugs, and there was no evidence that its introduction overseas encouraged non drug takers to start.

His advice to parents echoes the authorities — have open and honest lines of communication with kids about a plan if things go wrong.

“Often what happens is that people hope things are going to get better and they don’t. Things that could have been dealt with earlier don’t get dealt with — it’s left too late,” he said.

FOMO Festival in pictures

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