Music festival pill testing shouldn’t be controversial, writes Jarryd Bartle

Drug policy debates have a habit of becoming less about public health and more about personal morality. When it comes to preventing drug-related deaths at music festivals, it’s time to put your prejudices aside and get realistic, writes Jarryd Bartle

• Against: Miranda Devine says no to pill testing

Drug policy debates have a habit of becoming less about public health and more about personal morality.

When it comes to preventing drug-related deaths at festivals, it’s time to put your prejudices aside and get realistic.

Some Young People Enjoy Drugs

Most young people don’t use drugs, but those who do, will do so no matter how much you call it ‘risky’ or ‘stupid’. No stern words from Mum and Dad or the chipper caution from an anthropomorphic puppet will shift this.

To be honest, the Americanised ‘Just Say No’ shtick got a lot less cute when we started measuring summer successes by the number of body bags.

Why do kids take the risk? For fun, for pleasure and to bond with friends. Research has shown that most kids aren’t broken, peer pressured or coerced into taking drugs – they willingly take the leap.

Most of the time the risks are low. Party drugs don’t become party drugs when they are literal poisons.

Deaths from MDMA occur because of a tragic combination of factors: warm weather with a dodgy batch, an unexpected high purity, a panicked decision made whilst sniffer dogs are on patrol.

We can’t stop young people using drugs, but we can control the environment in which they use.

Police Can’t Help

Police are ineffective when it comes to drugs.

No amount of jocular groping and stripped humiliation will stop kids using. One survey by the National Drug Research Institute found that 96% of festival-goers would take drugs anyway, even if they expected a police presence.

It’s also worth noting that drug dealers are not scared off by police, with current efforts barely make a dint in Australia’s drug supply.

As law enforcement can’t help, health authorities should be allowed to do their job

cautioning against use whilst applying the principles of ‘harm reduction’ for those who use otherwise.

Pill Testing Can

So much unnecessary panic has occurred over pill testing, despite it being a well-established health intervention operating in over 20 countries across the world.

Pill testing shouldn’t be any more controversial than condoms. We wish you wouldn’t but if you’re going to do it anyway, let’s reduce the risks.

The most common response when someone gets an unexpected result at a pill testing service is to throw their drugs away – a ‘just say no’ approach we can all agree on.

Pill testing also affects illicit drug markets in ways policing can’t. Opportunistic dealers who cut their stuff with crap get held accountable and vetoed by buyers. This in-turn cleans up illicit drug markets.

The reality is that a health approach to party drugs works, even if it challenges your moral world view. It’s time to end the culture war.

You don’t have to love drugs to prevent tragedy.

Jarryd Bartle is a policy consultant on illicit drug use

Originally published as Music festival pill testing shouldn’t be controversial, writes Jarryd Bartle