The Queensland government has finally seen reason and is moving forward with pill testing, in a welcome move that will no doubt save lives.
The first testing site will open up at the Rabbits Eat Lettuce Festival later this month, followed by a permanent fixed-site at Brisbane’s Bowen Hills in April. A second site is also planned, with a location still to be determined.
Pill testing was legalised in Queensland earlier this year, but until now no sites had actually been confirmed.
It comes after two people died at the bush festival near Warwick five years ago. Ebony Greening, 22, and Dassarn Tarbutt, 24, were found dead in their tent with a lethal combination of drugs in their systems in April 2019.
Queensland health minister Shannon Fentiman said the state government would invest almost $1 million into pill testing services over the next two years.
“I want to be clear that these services are all about harm minimisation,” she said.
“We don’t want people ending up in our emergency departments – or worse, losing their life.”
She also said the government was working with the University of Queensland’s Institute for Social Science Research to evaluate the services and develop a state-wide monitoring framework for pill testing.
Rabbits Eat Lettuce Festival organiser Erik Lamir told the ABC that pill testing was a “step in the right direction in reducing drug-related harm”, with people able to access the facilities on-site.
“They can talk to one of the scientists and wait while the substances are checked and then they’re given their results and talked through the potential harms of what might be in the substances,” he said.
Results would also be shared with festival staff, meaning paramedics and doctors can be aware of what is circulating.
Until now, Australia’s only permanent pill testing site had been in Canberra, but calls for legislation have grown louder following a number of deaths and overdoses at festivals around the country over the past few years. States have been resistant to implement it, touting “personal responsibility” and citing fears of legal action if a person died after taking a drug that had been incorrectly tested.
Despite this, we know pill testing saves lives. The science is solid and communities support it, all we need now is the political will.
