Pill testing to be rolled out on the Gold Coast during Schoolies 2024

Schoolies heading to the Gold Coast this year will be able to participate in pill testing while celebrating finishing school.

Schoolies heading to the Gold Coast this year will be able to participate in pill testing during the end of school festivities.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman told Queensland Estimates the pill testing will be rolled out during the three-week event.

The confidential and free site will be located close to the entertainment precinct in Surfers Paradise and will be with other health services available to Schoolies.

Pill testing will be available at Schoolies this year. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Ms Fentiman said the pill testing sites will give people a chance to make informed choices.

“Every year thousands of people die from drug related deaths in Australia and one death is one too many,” she said.

“We are particularly concerned about the recent data which shows that illicit drug use in young women is increasing.

“This additional service is all about empowering Schoolies with the information they need to make to informed decisions that we hope will help to keep them safe.

“Without these services, we miss a unique opportunity to engage with Queenslanders about the harms of drug use.”

Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman says pill testing will be free at the Gold Coast during Schoolies. Picture: NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

The free service will allow people to have their illicit substances, providing a health intervention that aims to change a person’s behaviour, and reduce their risk of harms associated with illicit drug use.

It’s not the first time an event in Queensland will see the program rolled out, after pill testing was made available at the Rabbits Eat Lettuce Festival, near Warwick, in March.

The service saw 250 people get their substances tested over the multi-day festival.

Queensland has two fixed-site services available for people wanting to test their substances.

In the first month of operation at the CheQpoint service in Bowen Hills in April, 40 people walked through the doors with a total of 80 samples.

The testing of those substances found 74 per cent were commonly recognised unregulated substances, including MDMA, Alprazolam and LSD, while 12 per cent were novel psychoactive substances, 3 per cent contained less common substances and 8 per cent was unknown drugs.

More than half of those people who attended the clinic in April decided to discard the drugs on site and a further 16 per cent reported they would discard the substances themselves.

The second site is located in Burleigh Heads, and opened this month.

The pill testing rollout comes after recent National Drug Strategy Household Survey data found that for the first time since national records began, young women aged 18 to 24 are taking illicit drugs at the same rate as young men.

The same survey found that more than one third of young women have taken an illicit drug in the last 12 months, up from 27 per cent in 2019.