Pill Testing is Coming to Australian Music Festivals

Next month’s Rabbit Eats Lettuce competition will etch its title within the historical past books as the primary occasion in an Australian state to supply pill-testing providers.

Set for the Easter lengthy weekend, from March 28-April 1, the digital and dance-specialist fest is at dwelling close to Warwick within the south-east hall of Queensland — the primary Australian state or territory to commit to supporting tablet testing on an ongoing foundation.

Partygoers may have entry to free, voluntary, and confidential tablet testing by an “appropriately qualified chemist,” reads an announcement from state authorities, which is tipping in practically A$1 million ($660,000) in funding over two years.

“I am thrilled to be supporting new and innovative services to help reduce harms from illicit drug use,” feedback minister for well being, psychological well being and ambulance service Shannon Fentiman.

These providers, Fentiman continues, “are all about harm minimization; we don’t want people ending up in our emergency departments – or worse losing their life.”

According to figures printed by Queensland authorities, 2,231 drug-induced deaths have been reported in Australia in 2021– the equal of 5 deaths every day.

“That’s 2,231 deaths too many,” Fentiman continues, “and we know this number will continue to grow if we don’t act now.”

In 2019, two individuals died after consuming medication at Rabbit Eats Lettuce.

Harm Reduction Australia is contracted to ship “several” festival-based providers in 2024 and 2025 following an open market tender course of. The state authorities has additionally engaged the University of Queensland to conduct an analysis of the providers and to develop a statewide monitoring course of.

Also, by means of a healthcare partnership, fixed-site providers will function at two places in south-east Queensland, together with one in Bowen Hills, central Brisbane, and “at least one festival-based service” in 2024.

It’s a “step in the right direction in reducing drug-related harm,” Rabbits Eat Lettuce competition organizer Eric Lamir tells the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and, by means of the method, police have been “extremely supportive” in making ready for the gathering. Data captured from chemical assessments can be shared with the competition’s medical workers, which “means our paramedics and doctors will be able to have up-to-date data on what drugs might be circulating at the event.”

The public debate on tablet testing in Australia has rumbled on for years, and entered a trial section for the primary time on the Groovin the Moo competition within the Australian Capital Territory in April 2018, the place two doubtlessly lethal samples have been recognized and half the medication examined have been discovered to include no psychoactive substances.

Off the again of that trial and others in Canberra, Queensland developed testing protocols, and gave the inexperienced mild for chemically-checking medication in February 2023. 

With tablet testing providers rolling out correct on the fifteenth version of Rabbits Eat Lettuce, an “important milestone” is notched “in the ongoing efforts of Queensland to reduce drug related harms,” feedback a spokesperson for Pill Testing Australia, “and we know the patrons of the festival and their families and friends will greatly appreciate the availability of this vital public health service.”

Read extra right here.