How Victoria’s pill tests will work – both in the lab and at music festivals

In a fluorescent-lit lab in the CBD, machines hum as they work to determine whether a batch of illicit drugs might ruin someone’s day at a music festival – or even worse, land them in hospital.

Scientists scrape a sliver off the edge of a pill and mix it with a solvent before feeding it into the detectors. The sample splits apart, revealing its component molecules.

Jennifer Schumann, the head of the drug intelligence unit at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, with a liquid chromatograph.Credit: Jason South

Now separated, the sample is hit with light. Different molecular structures absorb and return different wavelengths of light. This returned light – a chemical fingerprint – informs scientists what is inside a pill. When a user is expecting MDMA, their drugs could be pure. But they could be a deadly synthetic opioid or be mixed with something else entirely.

This technology, known as an ultra-performance liquid chromatography, is likely to form the backbone of the Allan government’s new pill-testing program.

The legislation to allow a pill-testing trial will be introduced to the Victorian parliament on Tuesday. The bill is expected to coast through parliament, and the government wants the first mobile sites up and running for the summer festival season.

The specifics of the model are yet to be chosen, but it is expected to emulate the ACT’s program: a pill-testing hub using liquid chromatography supplemented by mobile pill-testing at music festivals using technology called FTIR, which can test the make-up of pills, capsules, powders, crystals and liquids in minutes.

The Victorian government wants its pill-testing trial in place for summer’s music festivals.

Only 18 months ago the Victorian government was firmly against pill testing, fearing at the time the policy would create a false sense of security for drug-takers.

But Associate Professor Jennifer Schumann, who has been tapped by the government to advise on the program, said there was “no evidence from anywhere around the world, from 30 years of drug-checking services” the false security was true.

Pill testing acknowledged the simple reality that Australians use illicit drugs, she said, pointing to data that shows more than 1 million Australians used cocaine in the past 12 months.

“There’s huge numbers of people using all sorts of different drugs. The ‘just say no to drugs’ approach hasn’t worked, and does not work,” said Schumann, who heads the drug intelligence unit at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine.

The bill to allow a pill-testing trial will be introduced to the Victorian parliament on Tuesday.Credit: Paul Rovere

“We need to be realistic and acknowledge some people are going to use drugs. And there are ways we can cut the harms associated with that.”

Mental Health Minister Ingrid Stitt described the policy as “common sense”.

“The evidence is clear pill testing reduces harm and save lives, and we have acted swiftly since announcing our plans to have services ready for the next festival season,” Stitt said.

How pill testing works

The exact design of Victoria’s pill-testing strategy is not yet complete. Schumann said it would likely centre on two technologies: FTIR and liquid chromatography.

Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) works by hitting a sample with infrared light.

“The substances will be excited by the particular wavelengths. And then they’ll retransmit the light – what bounces back will have the signature of the molecule,” said Dr Ian Musgrave, a molecular pharmacologist at the University of Adelaide.

Mental Health Minister Ingrid Stitt described the drug testing trial as “common sense”. Credit: Jason South

That light signature can then be run against a database of known drug signatures, allowing for quick identification of the chemical contents.

FTIR is quick, but has some limitations: principally it cannot detect chemical traces lower than about 5 per cent. If the drug is an impure mixture of low-quality compounds, identification can be harder: a 2019 trial of a machine at the Groovin the Moo festival in Canberra determined what was in 67 per cent of substances but made lower-confidence findings in 33 per cent of samples.

Liquid chromatography can fill this gap. The technology is more accurate, but it takes longer to get an analysis done. Schumann said that in some countries, some drug-users head to the service before attending a music festival.

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