Health body calls for urgent talks as pill-testing ban looms

Health experts who fear plans to ban pill-testing services are being rushed through and could put lives at risk have called for an urgent meeting with the Queensland government.

The Loop Australia chief executive Cameron Francis said the changes could be introduced as early as Thursday night and urged the government to meet with experts before making “irreversible legislative changes that could put Queensland lives at risk”.

The Loop ran Queensland’s first permanent pill-testing sites before they were defunded earlier this year.

The Loop Australia chief executive Cameron Francis led a coalition of health experts in calling for an urgent meeting with the Crisafulli government to discuss plans to introduce legislation to ban pill-testing services.Credit: Courtney Kruk

“Without these services, people using drugs have no way to know if they’re taking dangerous substances like nitazenes – synthetic opioids far more potent than heroin that have already been detected in Queensland,” Francis said.

“This is exactly the kind of public health emergency where expert voices should be heard.”

The Crisafulli government closed the state’s permanent pill-testing sites in April, a week after a highly toxic synthetic drug was detected in Brisbane.

It has since refused to release the findings of a taxpayer-funded independent evaluation of the service, and has ignored requests to meet with drug advocates and experts.

The Loop announced it had secured philanthropic funding to reopen the CheQpoint testing program this month, but paused plans after the LNP promised to “take whatever action is necessary through regulation or legislation to ensure that there are no privately funded pill-testing centres open in Queensland”.

Francis accused the government of suppressing scientific evidence and sneaking through “secret legislation” without consulting industry bodies, community stakeholders or experts “who understand these life-saving services”.

“I’m concerned that this decision is about ideology and it’s actually not about the safety,” Francis said.

From left to right: Julie, Joshua, Emily, Dominique and John Tam. The Tam family said they are “incredibly saddened” by the LNP’s decision to ban pill-testing services. Credit: Tam family

“Myself and the team that brought CheQpoint together [have] been working on this for many, many years now … inspired by some of the families who’ve lost people to drug overdose.”

Julie Tam’s son Joshua died in 2018 after taking an “unknown substance” at a music festival, prompting the Brisbane mother to become an advocate for pill-testing services.

The Tam family said they were “incredibly saddened” by the LNP’s bid to ban drug checking.

“When we lost our beautiful son Joshi we sat in the coronial inquest with our fellow parents who too had lost their loved ones,” they said.

“The findings were never going to bring our children back but they gave us a glimmer of hope that the outcomes would be implemented given they came about by the research provided by experts ... I don’t believe political representatives are experts.

“Josh may be with us today had this facility been available to him. He would have been able to speak to a health professional, for the first time in his life, who could have guided him to make a safer decision.”

A spokeswoman for Health and Ambulance Services Minister Tim Nicholls said “the Crisafulli government has made its policy on pill testing very clear, and that is that there is no safe way to take drugs”.

AMA Queensland president Dr Nick Yim condemned the government’s refusal to engage with experts and reiterated their calls for “evidence-backed treatments that save lives”.

“Multiple studies from around the world show this health-based approach, with a focus on education and intervention, is highly effective,” Yim said.

“The government says ‘there is no safe way to take drugs’. If they have evidence to demonstrate this, they should release it, so the Queensland community can examine the data.”

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