Pill testers say people will die as Qld service forced to close

Queensland’s first permanent pill-testing sites will close their doors at the end of Friday, just a week after one of them picked up a highly toxic synthetic drug.

CheQpoint, a jointly operated service funded by Queensland Health, opened in Bowen Hills in April last year. A second clinic launched on the Gold Coast in July.

The LNP promised to scrap the Labor initiative if elected, but allowed a temporary Schoolies service to go ahead last year.

The state’s first permanent pill-testing sites will close from April 4. Credit: CheQpoint

Cameron Francis, chief executive of The Loop Australia – a not-for-profit organisation that delivers the pill-testing service – said he feared lives would be lost as a result of the state government’s decision.

“The whole team’s pretty upset,” Francis said.

“We’ve met with Queensland Health, just to put forward our concerns for the future and to make sure it’s clear that removing a service like this is actually likely to lead to fatalities.”

Francis said his team picked up the presence of nitazenes – extremely potent synthetic opioids 40 times more powerful than fentanyl – three times since November, most recently last Friday.

“It’s actually really likely that if we weren’t there, those people would have taken those substances and most likely died,” he said.

Last month, Queensland Health issued a clinical alert after another type of nitazene, protodesnitazene, was detected in a toxicology sample.

The alert suggested the drug was mistakenly sold as desmetramadol, which is used to treat chronic pain.

Cameron Francis (left) with former Queensland premier Steven Miles, MP Grace Grace and a CheQpoint chemist ahead of the launch of the Bowen Hills pill-testing site a year ago.Credit: Queensland government

The LNP has rejected calls to continue pill testing.

Asked in parliament this week about the clinical alert and newly detected nitazenes, Premier David Crisafulli spoke about the impact of drugs on the streets of Philadelphia in the United States.

“What testing does is send a message that there is a component of drugs that is safe to do, and there is not,” Crisafulli said.

Francis said about half of CheQpoint’s clients had never spoken to anyone about drugs before, and it referred a quarter of them for additional support.

Among those who came to the service were people who had bought weight-loss medication online, cancer patients trying alternative supplements, and people buying pharmaceuticals to self-medicate.

In a statement on Thursday, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) called on the government to “reverse course and back the state’s drug-testing sites”.

“It was only a year ago that the college welcomed the then-Palaszczuk government making Queensland the first Australian state or territory to introduce an ongoing drug-testing service,” RACGP president Dr Michael Wright said.

“Since then, the service has tested over 1000 drug samples and supported nearly 700 people with free and confidential health advice. No type of illicit drug use is ever safe, but we must follow the evidence.”

RACGP Queensland chair Dr Cathryn Hester said the timing “couldn’t be worse”.

“I strongly suspect we’re only scratching the surface,” she said.

“Unlike other states and territories, Queensland doesn’t have an overdose monitoring system or a public drug alert network. I fear that once these drug-testing services end, we will see more overdoses.”

Francis said he had asked to meet with Health Minister Tim Nicholls, but had not received a response.

An international survey led by University of Queensland researchers and published last month detected synthetic opioids in Australian wastewater for the first time.

UQ has also been conducting an evaluation of pill-testing services, which is due at the end of May.

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