Key messages:
- Victoria will start a pill testing trial at the start of the summer 2024-2025 music festival season.
- Evidence shows pill testing services reduce harm and save lives.
- The service is one of Victoria’s health-led initiatives to reduce drug harms.
Victoria’s pill testing trial aims to reduce harm and save lives.
The pill testing service, also known as drug checking, will commence at the start of the summer 2024-2025 festival season and run for 18 months.
Victoria has seen a rise in drug-related emergency department admissions and overdose deaths involving novel synthetic drugs. Victorian paramedics responded to more drug overdoses at festivals in the first three months of 2024, than during all of 2023.
A mobile service will begin during this summer’s music festival season and will attend up to 10 festivals and events throughout the trial. A fixed site, due to open in mid-2025 will be co-located at a health service and operate from inner Melbourne, close to nightlife and transport.
The Department of Health will soon begin a procurement process to identify the most appropriate provider to operate the service.
The drug checking technology available at services can test the make-up of most pills, capsules, powders, crystals, or liquids and identify harmful chemicals that can lead to death or serious harm.
Trained harm reduction peer workers and technical experts will be present during drug testing. They will provide information about what is in the drug and give personalised and confidential harm reduction advice to help people make informed decisions.
Changes to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 will allow the trial to be introduced along with protections for the services, for its staff, and for its clients – so no one is breaking the law by operating or using the testing service.
The trial pill testing service is one Victoria’s key health-led harm reduction initiatives.
Read more about our Statewide Action Plan to reduce drug harms.
Research shows drug checking services work to reduce harm
There are more than 30 drug checking programs around the world, using both fixed-site and event-based models. Data from these services and those operating in other Australian jurisdictions shows pill testing works to reduce harms from illicit drugs.
Research includes:
- A 2023 evaluation of the Australian Capital Territory drug checking service, CanTEST, revealed only 53% of substances tested matched the expected drug. For those where an additional drug, a different drug or an inconclusive result was found, one-third reported that they ‘definitely will not’ use the drug.1
- A study at English festivals found the rate of onsite medical incidents and hospitalisations from accidental drug harm is significantly lower at festivals that provide pill testing services compared to those that don’t.2
- Police and medical services at a UK festival attributed a 95 per cent decrease in drug-related hospital admissions to pill testing services.3
- In a 2022 study, 86 per cent of consumers in Portugal and 69 per cent in the UK didn’t consume the drug when test results indicated the drug was different than expected.4
While the trial seeks to save lives, reduce drug harm, and improve public health at music festivals, it also aims to reduce pressure on frontline services and enhance Victoria’s drug surveillance capabilities.
Information provided by pill testing services will increase Victoria’s drug monitoring capability and provide early public warning of emerging threats caused by novel synthetic drugs.
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- Olsen A, Baillie G, Bruno R, McDonald D, Hammoud M, Peacock A (2023). CanTEST Health and Drug Checking Service Program Evaluation: Final Report. Australian National University: Canberra, ACT
- Measham F, Simmons H. Who uses drug checking services? Assessing uptake and outcomes at English festivals in 2018. Drugs, Habits and Social Policy. 2022;23(3):188-99. doi:10.1108/DHS-02-2022-0008
- Measham, F. C. (2019). "Drug safety testing, disposals and dealing in an English field: Exploring the operational and behavioural outcomes of the UK’s first onsite ‘drug checking’ service." International Journal of Drug Policy 67: 102-107. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.11.001.
- Measham F, Turnbull G. Intentions, actions and outcomes: A follow up survey on harm reduction practices after using an English festival drug checking service. International Journal of Drug Policy. 2021;95:103270. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103270
Valente H, Martins D, Pinto M, Fernandes L, Barratt MJ. A longitudinal study of behavioural outcomes following a visit to the Boom Festival 2018 drug checking service: individual and group level results. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy. 2023;30(4):373-82. doi:10.1080/09687637.2022.2072187
Reviewed 06 September 2024