Dozens charged amid first festival pill-testing trial

Australia’s first government-led pill-testing trial at a music festival in Wollongong over the weekend was lauded as a success despite 23 people being arrested for drug possession.

Australia’s first government-led pill-testing trial at a music festival in Wollongong over the weekend was lauded as a success despite 23 people being arrested for drug possession.

More than 100 revellers at the “Yours and Owls” music festival visited the pill-testing site at the Minns government’s first pilot, which was announced following recommendations from last year’s drug summit.

About 80 drug samples were tested over the two-day festival. Only nine contained substances that were not what the user was expecting.

A spokesperson for NSW Health said the most common drugs brought for testing were MDMA, ketamine and cocaine, with revellers made to sign a waiver stating that test results did not mean that taking the drugs was safe.

Yours and Owls festival at Wollongong over the weekend was the first time the NSW-government led pill testing was trialled. Photo: Supplied

Additionally, no critical drug-related health incidents were reported at the festival.

“Harm reduction advice was provided to all service users,” the spokesperson said.

“A number of samples were discarded in the amnesty bin as a result of the intervention.”

Yet not enough were discarded, with police and drug sniffer dogs detecting dozens of offenders.

Police charged 23 people with drug possession over the two days and completed 51 drug detections, the majority of which related to MDMA.

Six revellers were also kicked out of the festival and 18 cannabis cautions were issued.

One out of 10 drugs tested were found to have unexpected substances. Picture: NewsWire / Valeriu Campan

Health Minister Ryan Park said the trial was designed to allow festival-goers to make more informed decisions about drug use, adding police would still continue to target suppliers.

“Let me be clear, no level of illicit drug use is safe and pill-testing services do not provide a guarantee of safety,” he said.

“There will always be risks involved when consuming these substance.

“Illicit drug use remains illegal in NSW. These services will not be made available to suppliers and police will continue to target them.

“I have been advised that the pill-testing site at Yours & Owls Festival helped patrons make safer choices by connecting them with qualified health staff.”

Health Minister Ryan Park said no level of illicit drug use is safe. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

Yet critics of the pill-testing trial maintained drug test results could give users “a false sense of security”, allowing them to think their drugs were safe.

Tony Wood, whose daughter Anna died in 1995 after taking an ecstasy pill at a Sydney rave, said it was not always drug contamination that was the killer.

“Often it can be a violent reaction to the drug itself,” he said.

“In Anna’s case, the autopsy report said the drug she had taken was pure.

“The only way to be safe is to not do drugs.”

Tony Wood, father of teenager Anna Wood, who died from an ecstasy overdose at a Sydney rave. Picture: Richard Dobson

NSW Liberal upper house MP Rachel Merton said the pill-testing pilot gave young people the “absurd and dangerous idea” illicit drugs were safe.

“Not a single cent should be spent by this state in facilitating people to break the law through government-sponsored pill-testing,” she said.

“How can we tell children not to take illicit drugs when the Minns government takes the role as a facilitator underneath the veneer-thin argument of ‘harm minimisation’?”

The Wollongong festival, which was headlined by Fontaines D.C, Denzel Curry, The Kooks and the Goo Goo Dolls, welcomed the trial with open arms, with event co-founder Ben Tillman earlier saying pill-testing was something he had been “fighting for” for some time.

“While Yours and Owls maintains a zero-tolerance policy to illegal drugs, we are realists and see the abstinence-only approach as unhelpful,” he said.

Originally published as Dozens charged amid first festival pill-testing trial