NSW Police Minister Paul Toole declares hand on pill testing

NSW’s new police Minister Paul Toole has declared his position on pill testing following a new study which found that the MDMA taken into music festivals was highly “pure”.

The state’s new police Minister has declared his position on pill testing, warning the controversial tactic gives a “false confidence” to drug users.

Police Minister Paul Toole made the comments following the release of a NSW Health study which found that the MDMA taken into music festivals was often highly pure.

Mr Toole said that just because the study — of drugs seized at NSW music festivals across 2019 and 2020 — showed that most pills did not contain deadly poisons did not mean doing drugs was safe.

They were his first comments on pill testing since he was sworn in as police Minister in December,

The NSW Health study showed MDMA — which caused the deaths of six teens at music festivals between late-2017 and early-2019 — tested at the festivals ranged in purity between eight per cent and 88 per cent.

Unwanted additional chemicals were found in less than 15 per cent of drugs tested.

“Pill testing sends the wrong message to people about consuming illegal substances – there’s no such thing as a safe way to take these drugs and we don’t want to create a false sense of confidence that there is,” Mr Toole told The Daily Telegraph.

“Tragically, too many families are living with the consequences of people thinking there is.”

New Police Minister Paul Toole said pill testing sends the “wrong message”. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

The drug-related deaths of Alexandra Ross-King, 19, Josh Tam, 22, Nathan Tran, 18, Callum Brosnan, 19, Diana Nguyen, 21 and Joseph Pham, 23, at music festivals between late-2017 and early-2019 led Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame to controversially recommend the government introduce pill testing.

Ms Grahame urged the government to look at the issue with “fresh eyes” and in addition to pill testing, also recommended decriminalising personal use of illicit drugs and banning sniffer dogs, which she claimed created “panic” and led to “pre-loading”.

But a spokesman for both new Premier Dominic Perrottet and outgoing NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller confirmed their stance had not changed.

Nathan Tran died at a Sydney music festival.

Callum Brosnan died after the Knockout Games festival at Sydney Olympic Park.

Another step taken in the wake of the music festival tragedies was to commission a pilot pill testing project under NSW Health.

Released late last month, a report into the findings of the Combined Surveillance and Monitoring of Seized Substances (CoSMoSS) showed MDMA capsules had a median purity of 74 per cent.

The purity of MDMA contained in tablets dropped off significantly, with a median of 33 per cent.

However on a number of occasions drugs that users believed were MDMA were actually other dangerous substances, including ice and cocaine.

Alex Ross-King died at a Sydney music festival.

Josh Tam died after attending the Lost Paradise music festival.

Police sources said that even though pill testing showed many of the drugs were largely what their users believed them to be, this was still dangerous as users may think they are safe and feel bullet proof – leading them to take too higher dose.

The summer’s music festival season kicked off over the New Year’s holidays with 85 people charged for drug related offences at Field Day on January 1.

One accused drug dealer was allegedly caught with 50 MDMA pills.

A NSW Health spokesperson said: “The paper found that among the sample of drugs analysed, there was a wide variety of MDMA purity and dose, and this should remain a focus of harm reduction messaging,” a

“The publication is not an assessment of ‘pill testing’, though it does provide information on MDMA that was circulating at music festivals in NSW during the 2019-2020 festival season. The NSW Government does not support pill-testing.

“NSW Health want to ensure people across the state have a safe and enjoyable summer, and as such, want to remind the community that taking any illicit substance is dangerous, especially when mixing with other substances, or alcohol.”