NSW announces it will introduce pill testing trial from 2025
The decision comes as a result of the state's drug summit which has just concluded.
NSW's state government has this morning announced it will be running a trial of pill testing at music festivals from the start of next year. A decision made in an effort to "help people make safer choices before using illicit drugs."
The trial, which will go for 12-months over the course of 2025, will be totally anonymous and free to access by punters. It will cost NSW taxpayers just over $1 million total, according to the government.
In practice, the trial will allow festival goers the opportunity to have a small sample of their 'substances' tested, on the basis of purity, potency and adulterants.
The government has clearly stopped short of committing to any drug decriminalisation efforts, which has been a widely reported request of many health and welfare professionals involved in the summit over recent weeks.
In a quote to the ABC, Health Minister Ran Park said:
"We don't think this is a silver bullet and we reiterate we don't think this is going to solve every harm that drugs can cause," Mr Park said. "What happens to a drug inside a person's physiology and bodies is very different depending on the individual so this is by no means a silver bullet," he said.
He also confirmed that the introduction of this trial will mean that police will not be able to patrol or conduct sniffer dog searches in the immediate area.
"Police won't be patrolling that part of the drug and festival area … sniffer dogs won't be in that immediate area where the drug testing is going on," he said. "This is an opportunity for us to do something in a very moderated way, in a controlled way through a proper independent evaluated trial."
The news comes as there has been a huge rise in the number of drug overdoses by opioids, added into other drugs as adulterants or via contamination.
Read: PSA: Are you prepared for the dangers of synthetic opioids?
While responses to the news has been mixed, with many calling for greater reform, at least it's better late than never.
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Jack Colquhoun is Mixmag ANZ's Managing Editor, find him on Instagram.
