Pill-Testing Gets The Green Light… In Queensland

Queensland will become the second jurisdiction in Australia to implement a pill-testing regime to test for purity and contamination in recreational drugs.  

The Palaszczuk government will roll out pill-testing sites to test illicit drugs for the presence of potentially dangerous substances and chemical compounds. 

Queensland is developing protocols around the testing operation from successful trials conducted at festivals and a fixed site in Canberra.

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On today’s Briefing episode, we speak to Julie Tam, who lost her son after taking MDMA at a music festival and Rebecca Lang from the Queensland Network for Alcohol and Other Drug Agencies.  

After losing her son, Tam met with health professionals who volunteered to do a training day hosted by The Loop Australia to learn about the advanced technology that can identify drugs and reveal their purity.

We got to listen to so many experts in their fields and people from around the world, which was eye-opening to me. Then to hear it from people like that, not just Josh’s young cousins, just gave it more credibility,”

Tam said

Tam felt “relief” after Queensland became the first Australian state to introduce pill testing.  

You lost your child, and your mind is racing with what could stop this from ever happening. Whatever that is, we have to do that,”

she said.

Lang said the government approached this incident as a “health issue” rather than a “criminal issue”, and she hoped that Australia would take this as a “health issue” nationwide. 

Because that’s what it is. It’s not about how we criminalise it or make it stop; this never happened. I wish Josh never did it, and he was never involved in that. But the reality is that young people will test the water and do these things.” 

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