Rabbits Eat Lettuce 2024 kicks off as first music festival in Queensland to introduce pill testing

Festival organisers and pill testers want to ‘avoid tragic consequences’ following the introduction of a Queensland-first initiative at a popular music festival in the south of the state.

A festival in the state’s south will be the scene of Queensland’s first pill testing site, with organisers hoping to “avoid tragic consequences”.

Punters at this year’s Rabbits Eat Lettuce music festival in the Southern Downs held over the Easter long weekend will be safer, educated and aware as they make history for being the first site to use pill testing in the state’s history.

At the festival’s 15-year anniversary, headlined by acts such as What So Not and Biianco, thousands will descend to southern Queensland’s Elbow Valley.

The move comes tragically following two festival punters being found dead in the Southern Downs in 2019, with a coronial investigation determining both had lethal cocktails of drugs in their system when they died.

Former Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk introduced the scheme in 2023, following the only other state where it is allowed, the ACT.

Pill Testing Australia is the volunteer organisation which provides discrete and anonymous sample-based analysis of drugs, and focuses on awareness, free agency and choice.

Both festival organisers, analysts and police are aware revellers will be taking drugs at the music festival, but are optimistic that with the new measures it will be safe and controlled.

Professor Malcolm McLeod, lead chemist with Pill Testing Australia at Rabbits Eat Lettuce 2024 in the Southern Downs (Photo: ANU)

Professor Malcolm McLeod from Pill Testing Australia said his team will do a great job testing substances at the festival and find things people won't be expecting.

“It’s our aim to educate people about those drug uses and the risks associated with that and hopefully change a few minds about their use,” Professor McLeod said.

“People use drugs and we can’t ignore that fact, we might not like it but it happens, this is a method to reduce the potential harm of that drug use.”

Analyst Blake could test 40-50 samples within the first three hours of opening (Photo: NRM)

The process for pill testing at festivals, including Rabbits Eat Lettuce, is simple and very discrete, which encourages the curious to test anonymously without judgement.

There’s no big sign advertising where the drugs go, only placards with information on effects and dosage, tucked away in the pill testing site which is nestled away discreetly.

Testers will sign a form which notes the risks and the limitations of the testing process, then punters can enter where they can see the process in person.

“The chemist does the testing in front of the client, giving them the result directly, in the presence of a harm reduction worker,” one of the on-site drug testers said.

After a consultation about the findings, the reveller can decide whether to discard the drug discreetly or keep it.

Analysts can test for potent and lethal drugs, including fentanyl (Photo: NRM)

The client keeps the drugs in their possession, as only a small scraped sample is tested.

The lead tester does not believe there is any correlation between introduction of pill testing and an up spike in drug use, which is a common belief.

“If they have substances and they don’t come to pill testing they’re going to take them anyway, so I don’t think that has any legs,” Professor McLeod said.

“My view is that drug use occurs in society and it’s very common. It’s significant in Australia and we can bury our heads in the sand and ignore it or we can try and tackle some harms that might result from it.

“If we find something harmful and educate them about a potential harmful combination, we can avoid some of the tragic consequences we’ve seen in Melbourne.”

Chemical analyst Blake is volunteering with Pill Testing Australia (Photo: NRM)

Part of the pill testing mission is education, critical thinking and teaching good decision making.

“A lot of the time we might find what the client expects, like MDMA, and we can have a conversation about how to space out those things, it’s a hot day and it’s humid in the sun, so beware because that’s a big risk of MDMA is overheating in the sun,” he said.

Pill testing can be done in as quick as 10 minutes (Photo: NRM)

“All kinds of educational information might make people think twice about what they’re doing, so if you can get across those messages and avoid some of the potential harm and keep people a little bit safer.”

A local police officer at the festival said the people that attend like events are pretty well behaved usually and “just want to have a good time”.

Police response to pill testing

Darling Downs Superintendent Doug McDonald said there would be a large police presence on the roads leading in and out of the festival to ensure partygoers are not driving while adversely affected by drugs or alcohol.

“We are focused on drug and alcohol detection,” he said.

“There will be drug detection kits with our officers on the road and they will detect methamphetamine, MDMA, cocaine and THC from cannabis.

“There will be static sites and roaming patrols during the festival period.”

An exclusion zone is in place around the festival’s pill testing tent, while police focus their attention on the roads.

Rabbits Eat Lettuce begins to kick off Easter Weekend (Photo: NRM)

“We have zero tolerance for people that are driving affected by liquor or drugs,” Superintendent McDonald said.

“The pill testing at that particular event is a health-related response to that matter, but we will still be enforcing the law as we do as police.”

The festival will run across the long weekend.

Originally published as Rabbits Eat Lettuce 2024 kicks off as first music festival in Queensland to introduce pill testing