Australia’s first fixed-site pill testing service opens

First pictures from inside one city’s pill testing clinic have revealed how partygoer’s pills are tested.

Partygoers in the nation’s capital will be able to test their drugs for free at Australia’s first fixed-site pill testing clinic from Thursday.

The initiative by ACT Health will provide information about potentially deadly substances which end up in drugs without the user’s knowledge and help them make safer choices.

It will initially run on a six-month pilot trial following the success of similar pop-up trials at Canberra’s Groovin’ The Moo festival in 2018 and 2019.

A review of the 2019 festival trial found of 170 substances tested, seven contained the potentially deadly MDMA substitute, n-ethylpentylone.

All patrons with drugs which contained the substance discarded them into the amnesty bin rather than consume them as planned.

Australia’s first fixed-site pill testing clinic has opened in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Patrons can have their drugs tested for free with no obligation to discard them afterwards. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“The ACT is leading the nation with our progressive approach in treating drug use as a health issue and working with trusted community partners to reduce drug-related harms,” ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said.

“We know the safest option is not to take drugs and this will always be our advice to the community. However, we recognise that some people will choose to use drugs and there is a need for initiatives that reduce the harms associated with drug use.”

The CanTEST Health and Drug Checking Service will be run by Directions Health Services in partnership with Pill Testing Australia and Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation and Advocacy.

In addition to drug checking, the service also provides harm reduction information, as well as advice and counselling.

The clinic also offers information and counselling services to more broadly engage and improve safety for users. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Located at the City Community Health Centre on 1 Moore St, the clinic will be open every Thursday from 10am to 1pm and every Friday from 6pm to 9pm.

“Understanding the impact of these types of services is especially important given the recent rise in deaths of young people at music festivals and the detection of high potency synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, in seized heroin and cocaine,” independent evaluator, associate professor Anna Olsen from the Australian National University said.

“Our previous work suggests that drug checking services represent a unique setting to engage people who use drugs – in particular, those who may not usually access health-related information about their drug use.”