Pill testing to go ahead at NSW summer music festivals
Music festival attendees will be given amnesty to test the purity and potency of illicit drugs in a landmark trial of pill testing to be announced by the Minns government on Thursday.
After years of calls from drug reform advocates for pill-testing services to be allowed in NSW, the government will announce a 12-month trial of the service beginning in time for the summer music festival season in early 2025.
Pill testing will be allowed at about a dozen NSW music festivals from 2025 in a major trial of the service.
The trial, to be run by NSW Health and costing about $1 million, will be held at about a dozen music festivals with a history of drug overdoses.
The government says the service will be “free and anonymous” and will allow festival attendees to have samples of illicit drugs tested for their purity, potency and the presence of adulterants by health professionals.
The announcement of the trial represents a shift for the Labor government. Premier Chris Minns has previously questioned the effectiveness of pill testing, warning it was not a “silver bullet”.
He also previously ruled out a pill testing trial this summer, saying he would wait for the results of the drug summit held this month.
Amid pressure from reform advocates – as well as members of the Labor caucus – the government gave itself a path to hold a trial sooner after Health Minister Ryan Park asked the summit co-chairs Carmel Tebbutt and John Brogden to give it interim advice ahead of their formal recommendations due next year.
As the Herald revealed last week, that advice was requested in part due to the start of music festival season in a clear indication the government was willing to push ahead with a trial this summer. That advice recommended a trial of pill testing at music festivals, which was signed off on by the cabinet.
“As I’ve always said, there are no silver bullets here. But if there are any further steps we can take to keep young people safe this festival season, we’ll listen to the experts and the evidence,” Park said.
While the details of the 12 festivals likely to be chosen for the trial are still being decided, NSW Health will focus on events with a history of drug overdoses.
In October last year, two men died of a suspected drug overdose at the Knockout Festival at Sydney Olympic Park, while in December, four people were hospitalised after taking drugs at the Epik music festival.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park.Credit: Janie Barrett
The amnesty provided by the trial will be limited to people seeking to check small quantities of illicit drugs for their own personal use, and the government said police operations targeting drug supply would not be affected.
It means that, in practice, police are still likely to be able to use drug detection dogs at festivals subject to the trial. Officers will not monitor the drug-checking site, and government sources said they would rely on police discretion not to target people carrying small amounts of drugs near the festival.
Ahead of the announcement on Thursday, Minns stressed he would be “guided by the evidence we are presented” following the trial.
“The trial has a clear purpose – to reduce harm and save lives,” he said.
“No parent wants to be given the news that something has happened to their child at a music festival and that they are now in an emergency department or worse.
“I also want to be clear that taking illicit drugs remains illegal. This trial does not change police powers, and if you commit a crime, you may be charged and prosecuted.”
NSW will become the fourth jurisdiction in Australia to announce pill testing, following the ACT, Queensland and Victoria. Its use has long been called for by experts in the state, including following a 2019 coronial inquest into a series of drug-related deaths at music festivals and the NSW Ice Inquiry.
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