Pill-testing trial confirmed for Victoria over summer

Victoria will get a pill-testing trial over summer after an official announcement by Premier Jacinta Allan.

Further details of the program are yet to be released, but it was approved at a cabinet meeting on Monday.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has softened her view towards a pill-testing trial.Credit: Joe Armao

In a video posted on her social media, Allan said paramedics had attended more drug overdoses at festivals in the first three months of this year than during all of last year.

She said young people wanted information and similar schemes around the world had shown it worked.

“They want a medical professional who can tell them exactly what it [the pill] is and exactly what it does without telling them it’s safe,” Allan said.

“No judgment. Just facts. Honest, open, health-focused conversations. That’s how we change young people’s behaviour and even reduce drug use.”

The Age revealed a week ago that the Health Department had been working on what a pill-testing trial would look like.

It would likely include mobile teams attending music festivals to test illicit drugs for potency and contaminants.

Allan’s predecessor, Daniel Andrews, was against any moves on pill testing, but Allan has softened her government’s opposition after a spate of overdoses at music festivals last summer.

These included nine people needing hospitalisation in January after attending Hardmission Festival, eight of whom had to be intubated after ingesting MDMA. Six days later, two women were taken to hospital after suspected drug use at Juicy Fest.

Nine people were taken to hospital after overdosing on drugs at Hardmission Festival in January.

Seven Victorian coronial inquests have previously called on the state to introduce pill testing.

Allan said further details on how the program would work and the surrounding protections would be revealed later this week.

She stressed it was a simple and commonsense way to save lives.

“No drug is ever truly safe, but people deserve to know if that one pill will kill,” Allan said. “If someone’s asking for that information and we have the power to give it to them, then why on earth wouldn’t we?”

Allan said she had also considered the issue as a parent.

“What if the worst happens? What if one of them doesn’t make it home, and that’s every parent’s worst nightmare,” she said.

Pill-testing advocate and Animal Justice party MP Georgie Purcell was quick to back the move.

“Growing up and experimenting shouldn’t be a death sentence,” she said. “This is the sensible, evidence and health-based policy.”

The ACT trialled a mobile testing site at a music festival in 2018 and has since opened fixed pill-testing sites. Queensland opened its first permanent pill-testing centre in Brisbane in April.

Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association chief executive Chris Christoforou said drug checking had been recommended by seven coronial inquiries.

"We congratulate the Victorian Government on continuing to take an evidence-based approach to reducing the harms from alcohol and other drug use in our community," he said.

“A drug-checking trial could not come soon enough amidst increasing rates of preventable overdose and the threat of potent synthetic opioids.”

Legalise Cannabis MP Rachel Payne said the change was a “massive leap forward” in harm reduction supported by current and former crossbench MPs.

“Thank you to the Premier and Minister Stitt for listening to the experts, coroners, harm-reduction advocates and the community who have been calling for this for decades,” she said.

Victorian Greens MP Aiv Puglielli said the ACT had recently extended their drug-checking services.

“It’s great to hear that pill testing is happening, now we need to make sure it’s rolled out widely and quickly by the summer festival period in order to keep young people safe,” he said.

If this story has raised issues about your own or others’ drug and alcohol use, please contact the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline on 1800 250 015.

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