‘We have this conversation every summer’: The cost of MDMA overdoses

Victorian taxpayers spend up to $3.9 million a year on MDMA-related overdoses in ambulances, emergency departments, hospital admissions and coronial inquiries, leading advocates to argue there is a financial case for pill testing.

Libertarian Party MP David Limbrick, who requested the analysis, said there is a clear need for pill testing in Victoria after two music festivals in Flemington were this month beset with overdoses in hot weather.

He said a drug-checking service could be run and funded by a community organisation after Pill Testing Australia last year offered to run a festival-based trial for free.

“This would save lives and save money, so why wouldn’t you do it?” Limbrick said.

The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) estimated Victoria spent $1.9 million on MDMA-related overdoses in 2021-22.

Estimated government expenses reached a high of $3.9 million, when the PBO counted 644 MDMA-related overdoses in 2019-20, before declining to 246 in 2021-22, likely due to COVID-19 lockdowns.

Libertarian Party MP David Limbrick has long pushed for transparency on figures on drug searches by police.Credit: AAP

Each overdose cost an estimated average $7870 in 2021-22, or $11,448 if the person required an ambulance, emergency department treatment and hospital admission.

The calculations do not include the cost of police responses or sub-acute care for chronic injury.

Nine people overdosed on a 33-degree day at the Hardmission electronic music festival earlier this month, and two others were hospitalised at Juicy Fest last Friday after suspected drug use on another hot day, prompting renewed debate about the way drugs are policed in Victoria.

None of those hospitalisations have been fatal. But MDMA contributed to 10 overdose deaths in 2021-22, and as many as 15 in 2020-21, the PBO found based on coronial investigations.

“Unfortunately, we have this conversation every summer,” Limbrick said.

“It’s time for the government to act, so we’re not having the same conversation next year.”

Drug checking or pill testing would allow a user to have the contents of their substances analysed before consumption, and could confirm whether a dose was particularly high or mixed with unexpected substances. A drug counsellor could spend time with each attendant to explain risks and provide harm reduction advice.

Pill testing 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, or encourage them to slow their intake if it was a high dose.

Premier Jacinta Allan on Tuesday softened her previously strongly anti-testing tone and said she would seek expert health advice and have conversations with her cabinet colleagues about a drug-checking service, while repeating the government’s position had not changed.

She would not rule out trialling the initiative and acknowledged four coroners in six years had recommended it, but the government could ultimately make no change.

There is a perception among politicians that Victoria Police would be the main opponents to allowing pill testing. A spokesman for the force said the decision was ultimately a matter for the state government.

A spokesman for the Police Association of Victoria, which represents officers, said it was difficult to digest the sometimes tragic consequences of illicit drug taking.

“Our view remains that pill testing is not the panacea to this issue. The community and the government needs to ask itself, particularly in light of this most recent spate of overdoses, how it wants to prevent this from happening again,” the spokesman said.

“Does it want police to prevent the taking of illicit substances, through enforcement, or does it prefer to accept that illegal drug taking is going to occur and to accept the consequences of that?”

Opposition Leader John Pesutto on Tuesday acknowledged there was a debate to be had but believed pill testing could give people a false sense of security that taking drugs was safe.

The Greens, Legalise Cannabis and Animal Justice Party have also co-sponsored a bill in the upper house of the Victorian parliament to establish a two-year pill-testing trial. Queensland and the ACT are trialling the measure.

The PBO warned there were limitations to its calculations, mostly because hospitals changed the way they reported emergency presentations, but that the number of MDMA-related overdoses and associated costs were likely underestimated.

“We were unable to identify which hospital visits related to MDMA … unless there were additional clinician notes explicitly mentioning MDMA use,” the report, released on Thursday, said.

At the time the calculations were provided last month, the Department of Health had not yet collected hospital costings for 2021-22. The PBO estimated the hospital costs for that year based on historical data and inflation.

The Age on Tuesday revealed a new study that found 64 drug-related deaths at music festivals around the country over 20 years could have potentially been prevented. Seventeen of the deaths were in Victoria, according to the study by Associate Professor Jennifer Schumann from Monash University’s department of forensic medicine.

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