The Victorian government will launch the first of 10 pill testing trial sites at a popular music festival over New Year’s Eve.
Pill testing machines will be available at the Beyond the Valley festival, a four-day event held at Barunah Plains near Hesse, west of Geelong.
The festival is expected to attract around 35,000 people, which would make it the biggest event in Australia to ever have pill testing sites.
Beyond the Valley will be the largest event in Australia to ever have pill testing on site. (Beyond the Valley)
Premier Jacinta Allan said it would provide a judgement free zone for Victorians to check their drugs safely.
“We know that this harm reduction approach works, it works to save lives,” Ms Allan said.
“We’re not going to bury our heads in the sands, we do recognise … that if a young person is at a festival with a pill in their hand, they intend to use it.”
Ms Allan said while the pill testing would increase safety, it did not mean a tacit approval of drug use.
“No pill is safe, no drug is safe, and that’s certainly the message that will continue to be delivered,” she said.
Concerns over drug overdoses in recent years have increased support for publicly available pill testing. (Facebook: Beyond The Valley)
Beyond the Valley is the first of five festivals to host pill testing trials this summer, with another five to be announced for the 2025/26 summer.
Minister for Mental Health Ingrid Stitt said the introduction of pill testing trials came at a particularly crucial time.
“We know the drug market is becoming more volatile,” Ms Stitt said.
“We saw last summer, some of the really adverse impacts of people taking drugs when they didn’t know what was in them.”
Eight people were left in a critical condition following a suspected drug overdose at a Melbourne rave in January.
In July, the Department of Health issued community warnings of a dangerous synthetic opioid, nitazene, being found mixed with cocaine in Victoria.
Testing to target MDMA purity problem
The pill testing sites will be operated in partnership with The Loop Australia, a non-profit organisation that is also behind drug checking services in Queensland.
GCMS machines will deliver drug test results in minutes to festival goers. (ABC News: Jake Evans)
The Loop Australia chief executive Cameron Francis said the service use gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) machines to detect virtually any substance.
“Pills, powders, liquids — we can identify and quantify almost anything that comes forward,” Mr Francis said.
Festival goers will be able to see results of drug tests within minutes.
Mr Francis said of particular concern was the strength of MDMA (ecstasy) pills available to Victorians.
“MDMA purity is our biggest concern coming into the summer,” he said.
“We know that globally MDMA purity has increased, and we know that when that purity increases, there is risk of overdoses.”
A Parliamentary Budget Office report found MDMA played a contributing role in 50 fatal drug overdoses Victoria from 2018/19 to 2021/22.
The pill testing sites will be able to identify a range of substances. (Supplied: CanTEST)
Deputy opposition leader Evan Mulholland said the Liberal party was keen to see how the trial rolled out, but said it had little confidence in the trial.
“Pill testing is not a foolproof endeavour,” Mr Mulholland said.
“The government really need to be investing in drug and alcohol rehabilitation. I think they’ve got their priorities wrong on this one.”
However, Mr Mulholland stopped short of saying the Opposition would repeal pill testing if elected, as promised by new Queensland premier David Crisafulli during his election campaign.
Logistics around festival pill testing still up in the air
While the trial has been confirmed for the December/January festival, the details of the location and actual operation were still to be determined.
Pete Sofo is the director of Festivals and Major Events at Untitled Group, which organises Beyond the Valley, and said the company was still working with government on the details.
He said he hoped other festivals would follow their lead in offering testing.
“I really hope it just becomes another part of festival organisation broadly and becomes less of a talking point to be honest,” Mr Sofo said.
“It should just be a normal part of festival operations, just as much as medical, patron welfare, fire planning, traffic planning, the whole thing.”
Pete Sofo says the organisers of Beyond the Valley were thrilled when asked to host the state’s first pill testing trial site. (ABC News: Samantha Jonscher)
He said many festival goers supported the move and saw it as a “common sense” approach to a growing problem.
“Seeing the change, especially the introduction of synthetics, is a real concern,” Mr Sofo said.
“Now that we’ve got the ability to test for that, I think that’s really positive.”
The Victorian Greens have called on the government to reduce police presence at the festival in concert with the pill testing site, by ensuring sniffer dog squads are not present.
“For pill testing to work, festival goers need confidence to use this life saving service without fear of being targeted by police and sniffer dogs,” Victorian Greens spokesperson Aiv Puglielli said.
“The Premier needs to pick up the phone to the Police Commissioner and ensure young people and festival goers have clarity and reassurance about how police will be interacting with pill testing and the people using the service.”
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