When Australia held its first legal pill testing trial at Groovin The Moo festival in May, it exposed lethal drugs

THE festival that trialled pill testing exposed lethal drugs on its first day. Here’s what happened and how it could have helped kids at Defqon.

Australia held its first legal pill testing trial at Groove The Moo festival in May.

AUSTRALIA, it is #timetotest. Just saying “No” hasn’t worked, and Australia’s own pill testing experiment is proof.

The deaths of Joseph Pham, 23 and a 21-year-old woman from Melbourne has reignited calls for festivals to offer pill testing for harm reduction as the government’s “just say no” approach was slammed.

Hundreds have taken to social media using the hashtag #timetotest calling on the government to change its strategy, and enforce pill testing, rather than just banning festivals.

Emergency doctor David Caldicott who worked on Australia’s first successful pill testing trial at Canberra’s Groovin The Moo in May this year, has expressed his disappointment in the current approach.

“Here’s a thought. What is the harm of any jurisdiction allowing a trial of #pilltesting in Australia?” Dr Caldicott wrote on Twitter.

“Just try it — just once. If you can say it achieved nothing, or made things worse never do it again. Because at the moment, doing ‘the same ‘ole, same ‘ole is killing’ people.”

Following Groovin The Moo’s legal testing tents, Dr Caldicott said “beyond a shadow of a doubt, we’ve proved its usefulness”.

“If they think young people are going to stop using drugs because people disapprove of it, they’re kidding themselves,” he said.

Many have taken to the now trending hashtag #timetotest saying it is a matter of control and pill testing is a better way to educate then prohibit drug-taking.

Here's a thought.
What is the harm of any jurisdiction allowing a trial of #pilltesting in Australia?
Just try it- just once.
If you can say it achieved nothing, or made things worse- never do it again.
Because at the moment, doing 'the same 'ole, same 'ole is killing' people.

— David Caldicott (@ACTINOSProject) September 16, 2018

Young ppl know the risks associated with #drugs and choose to use them anyway. Let actually do #harmminimisation as per our National Drug Strategy instead of #harmmaximisation by helping them make a more informed decision by #TimeToTest #sniffoff @RichardDiNatale

— Dr Stephen Bright (@stephenjbright) September 16, 2018

Drug checking is essential intersection between #consumersafety and #publichealth - not supporting it, and continuing to allow preventable deaths to serve as a “lesson” to others, is unconscionable #TimeToTest https://t.co/v5GRekkPf9

— Dr. Kenneth Tupper (@DrKennethTupper) September 16, 2018

HOW PILL TESTING COULD HAVE HELPED DEFQON FESTIVAL GOERS

When Australia held its first legal pill testing trial at Groove The Moo festival earlier this year, it discovered two deadly pills and drugs cut with paint, toothpaste and artificial sweetener.

Of the thousands that attended the festival, 128 elected to have their drugs tested, a trial that was a collaboration between Safety and Testing and Advisory Service at Festivals and Events (STA-SAFE), the ACT government and ACT Police.

“People were surprised with the kind of stuff that we found in the drugs. We had everything from paint to toothpaste. We also found NutraSweet, which is an artificial sweetener, arnica muscle rub and milk powder,” STA-SAFE member Matt Noffs from Harm Reduction Australia previously told news.com.au at the time.

The most concerning of chemicals found, in terms of toxicity, was a drug called N-ethyl pentylone and this was the first known case of it hitting Australian shores. It is three times as potent as MDMA,

The drug, which comes in a white powder, is a form of cathinone — known as “bath salts” and is often used by dealers as a substitute for MDMA overseas.

Dr Caldicott, who worked inside the pill-testing tent, said the presence of N-ethyl pentylone was particularly concerning “because it’s killed people”.

“The drug is known to cause mass-casualty overdoses, where you can have groups of 10-20 people just dropping at festivals,” he said.

Australia held its first legal pill testing trial at Groove The Moo festival in May.

The overall trial was hailed as a massive success with Dr Caldicott saying the testing had likely saved lives.

However, some of the festivalgoers said there was a slight problem with the system — they couldn’t find the testing tent.

“We didn’t know where it was,” one Groovin the Moo attendee, who wasn’t named, told Triple J’s Hack at the time. “There was no sign posting where it was … so we just took the drugs.”

“If there was something in it that I didn’t think would be there, I’d think twice, definitely.”

Pill testing works by taking a sample scrape off a pill or a small number of granules out of a plastic capsule. That sample is then analysed by a doctor and a chemist to determine what it really contains and the results are handed back to the festival attendee.

They are then able to make a choice about whether they still want to consume the drugs or instead dispose of them in an “amnesty bin”.

ACT Police Chief Justine Saunders also called the testing a “great success”, making good on the force’s promise to not target those who used the tent.

The force still made arrests at the festival; five people had been arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct and one person had been arrested for drug possession after they were caught with 18 tablets.

Another person was caught with MDMA but was diverted from the judicial system into a drug and alcohol diversion program.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian vowed on Sunday to permanently shut down the “unsafe” festival but continued to oppose pill testing.

COUNTRIES USING PILL TESTING

Austria

ChEck iT! is an on-site pill testing service in Austria — it was introduced back in April 1997. According to a survey by the service, it found that about half of those who had their pills tested said the results affected their consumption choices, the ABC reported, with two-thirds saying they wouldn’t consume the drug if it was found to contain harmful substances.

In a report titled EU pill testing, it stated that the service has a good working base with the local police who support the preventive measures of the project: “The police are present at raves where ChEck iT! is offering chemical analysis, but do not concentrate their actions on visitors of ChEck iT!”

The Netherlands

Today, pill testing is an official part of Dutch drug policy and has been approved by the Dutch Parliament, according to the EU pill testing report. The DIMS pill testing project is, however, not allowed to analyse pills that are presented by obvious dealers or producers.

They’ve been using the service since the early ’90s when the government became concerned about the growing drug problem.

The DIMS labs have a permit to handle illegal drugs for the purpose of scientific research to find out what drugs are out there, what are the trends in drug use, and what are the health risks for those drugs.

The DIMS offices are open to the public, so anyone can bring in samples for testing. They also operate on-site services at parties and festivals around the country, as part of the Safe House Campaign.

Parklife Festival in the UK used not-for-profit testing service The Loop to test drugs. Source: Instagram

United Kingdom

The ABC reported that in the UK, two-thirds of users consulted by not-for-profit testing service The Loop said they would not take drugs found to contain harmful substances. More than half said test results had affected their consumption choices and many said they intended to dispose of their drugs or take less of them.

Fiona Measham, a professor of criminology with Durham University who led the trials, told the ABC: “About one in five service users give us further substances of concern to throw away after hearing their test result.”

A festivalgoer took to Reddit last year to say, “It’s organisations like this that are saving lives, I was at Parklife Festival in the UK this weekend and a company called ‘The Loop’ had a stand, with drug testing and information available free of charge, also anything you get tested is done privately and will be given back to you if you wish.

“This needs to happen at every festival, it isn’t promoting drug use, it’s reducing harm and saving peoples lives.”

Switzerland

Pilot-Eis is allowed to test pills in the canton of Bern (located in west-central Switzerland). It came about after much legal debate and opinion on the topic of pill-testing, but now has the support of public authorities, the local police and party and party organisers. Pilot E is not allowed to give out quantitative analyses for “obvious dealers“. In this respect, the regulations

resemble those of the Netherlands.

Belgium

Since 2001, Belgium has been using a service called Modus Vivendi. According to the EU Pill Testing report it is accepted by the Federal Ministry for Public Health, but it is not clear whether feedback to potential consumers of illicit substances is legal, since to date local authorities did not issue an official acceptance of the project. Local police do not approve of the project and discourage users to come to the testing.