Pill testing to become permanent in Victoria

Pill testing will be permanent in Victoria, with an 18-month trial to determine the best model to introduce the drug reform that Mental Health Minister Ingrid Stitt says is already backed by evidence.

A mobile site will visit up to 10 festivals across two summers from this December, and a fixed site within a party district in Melbourne will open from mid-next year. The location and specific events were yet to be determined.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and Mental Health Minister Ingrid Stitt (left) in April.Credit: Justin McManus

“This won’t be a trial about the efficacy of drug checking because the evidence is already in,” Stitt said. “The model is what we want to trial and I certainly wouldn’t want to pre-empt the evaluation of the model.”

The 18-month trial would cost about $4 million, Stitt said.

The Age revealed a week ago that the Department of Health had been working on what the pill-testing trial would look like.

Premier Jacinta Allan said she had softened her position in the past couple of years.

“It does not make drugs legal, and it does not make drugs safe,” Allan said on Tuesday, announcing details of the trial. “But it does mean we are going to give young people the information they need. And we’re doing this because all the evidence says it works. The evidence tells us it changes behaviour.”

Pressure on the government to act mounted following a spate of non-fatal overdoses at festivals early this year.

These included nine people needing hospitalisation in January after attending Hardmission Festival, eight of whom had to be intubated after ingesting MDMA. Six days later, two women were taken to hospital after suspected drug use at Juicy Fest. Heat was found to have played a role.

The government said paramedics responded to more drug overdoses at festivals in the first three months of this year than during all of last year. There were 46 overdose deaths in 2022 involving novel synthetic drugs.

Coronial inquests have repeatedly called on the government to try a drug-checking service.

People would be able to have the make-up of pills, capsules, powders, crystals or liquids tested in about seven minutes. Trained peer workers would also provide personalised health information.

Drug checking would not stop overdoses from occurring. But supporters say – and trials in other jurisdictions have shown – that it could discourage people from taking drugs with unexpected substances, encourage them to slow their intake, or take precautions such as sitting in the shade.

Credit: Matt Golding

Legislation will be brought to parliament this year. Users and workers would be indemnified at a testing site, but police powers would otherwise remain the same.

Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said pill testing would fly in the face of long-accepted policing principles, personal responsibility and the law.

“Our view remains that pill testing is not the panacea to this issue,” Gatt said in a statement.

“The government will have to explain clearly to police and the community what it expects police to do in terms of enforcement in and around these events.”

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the legislation was up to the government, and officers would enforce the law accordingly.

“We will now work with government to understand the details of the legislation and how best to operationalise it,” she said.

The government said further work, including consultation with police and the festival industry, would continue.

Opposition Leader John Pesutto said he would not proceed with the policy if elected in 2026 because it gave a “green light” to dangerous drug taking.

“It also, unfortunately, lays out a welcome mat for those who will deal in pills and other drugs, who will see this as an invitation to only expand their activities,” he said.

The Greens, Legalise Cannabis and Animal Justice parties introduced a joint bill to trial drug checking in Victoria and welcomed the government’s announcement.

Libertarian MP David Limbrick also supported pill testing but said taxpayers should not have to stump up the cost.

Penington Institute chief executive John Ryan, who led a review into the North Richmond safe injecting room and whose organisation specialises in public health research and drug policy, applauded the government for acting on the evidence to save lives.

Royal Australian College of GPs president Dr Nicole Higgins also welcomed the news.

If this story has raised issues about your own or others’ drug and alcohol use, please contact the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline on 1800 250 015.

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