Year 10 Legal Studies: Pill Testing

Revellers at summer music festivals would be alerted to bad batches of illicit drugs under a radical pill testing plan from paramedics that has been rejected by the Labor government.

Pill testing at festivals is not a machine that labels drugs as 'safe' or 'unsafe', independent member for Murchsion, midwife and nurse Ruth Forrest says.

THE north’s major music festival has joined the push for the Government to allow pill testing trials at Tasmanian events with a petition to parliament.

The death of 19-year-old Georgina Bartter at a music festival on the weekend from a suspected ecstasy overdose could possibly have been avoided with a simple harm-minimisation intervention. Pill testing, or drug checking as it’s known in Europe, provides feedback to users on the content of illegal drugs, allowing them to make informed choices.

This summer has already seen two overdose deaths and a number of hospitalisations at Australian music festivals, re-energising the debate over the implementation of pill testing. newsGP explores various aspects of the deb

Evidence is growing that pill testing encourages young people to reconsider their drug use—and new forms of testing can provide even more benefits.

Tens of thousands of young people attend music festivals every year amid a national debate about whether Australia should introduce pill testing at public events for those intending to use illicit drugs. The Catholic Weekly presents two expert views, one for and one against pill testing.