Police will not be called on users seeking illicit drug testing in Queensland

In just a few months, Queensland will become the first Australian state to offer drug users a free service to test illegal substances such as ecstasy, heroin, and cocaine.

The state government this week issued an invitation to offer tender calling for a provider to operate two fixed drug-checking sites and a mobile service for events such as music festivals and sporting events, revealing more details about how pill testing will operate after the move was first flagged in February.

The Queensland government has released a tender calling for a provider to run its pill testing service.Credit: Brisbane Times

Drug checking was first trialled at a Canberra music festival five years ago, with the ACT opening a fixed site last year, while a Victorian coroner this week called for the introduction of pill testing in that state – the fourth coroner to do so in six years.

The most recent calls in Victoria came after a 26-year-old man died having probably taken an MDMA (ecstasy) pill known as the Blue Punisher at a music festival.

The Queensland walk-in service will be confidential, available to people of any age, including under-18s, and anyone seeking testing of illegal drugs at approved sites will not be reported to police.

The fixed sites will be co-located with a health service, ideally near nightlife precincts and easy public transport access, with an obscured entry with minimal “drug checking” signs, and lockers near the entrance for mobile phones as they will not be allowed beyond the waiting area.

Users will be offered an optional “brief intervention”, including information about harm reduction, and patrons can bin drugs they do not want.

They may also be given take-home naloxone, a drug that can temporarily reverse opioid overdose, syringes and STI screening.

Chemical results from tests could be used to issue public health alerts.

The contract is worth $500,000, with a three-month establishment period and 12 months of service delivery, to begin “as soon as practicable” in the second half of 2023.

If a mobile service is operational by summer, events could include the Woodford Folk Festival over New Year’s and St Jerome’s Laneway Festival in February 2024.

The pill testing set-up used in the successful ACT trial.Credit: Christopher Pearce

Queensland’s pill testing announcement in February – described as one advocate as having a “certain degree of bravery” – was made the same month the government revealed it would decriminalise possession of small amounts of drugs, allowing people found carrying less than a gram three chances before facing charges.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said evidence from the ACT’s trials showed drug-checking services, when there was no fear of prosecution, reduced the risks and harms associated with illicit drug use.

“We need to be clear – this is a harm minimisation measure, not a law-and-order campaign,” she said.

“We are doing this to try to protect all Queenslanders from the dangerous effects of illicit drugs.”

A report on the first six months of Canberra’s fixed drug testing site, which tested substances including MDMA, cocaine, ketamine, methamphetamine, steroids and heroin, found only half the test results detected the expected drug.

When the substance was not what the user expected, it contained an additional drug or testing was inconclusive, users were four times more likely to report they would “definitely not” use the drug.

Of the cocaine samples tested, 76 per cent were low purity, and eight contained other substances including the anaesthetic benzocaine or boric acid, while a new illicit drug, 2F-NENDCK, was found in ketamine.

A CanTEST staffer said users at the fixed site included people on their lunch break “in their power suit” and others wearing tie-dye.

LNP health spokeswoman Ros Bates has previously described the move to introduce pill testing in Queensland as “soft on drugs”.

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