Pills, powders and liquids will be able to be legally tested across Victoria, following a major policy change announced by Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan this week.
The service will become permanent after an 18-month trial starting this summer, with a mobile service to attend up to 10 music festivals.
The announcement is a change from Labor’s previous stance against pill testing, and while the party chooses to not support a second safe drug injecting room in Melbourne’s CBD.
The Briefing asked Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan why the drug testing scheme is happening now:
“Pill testing is a way that you can have honest, open, non judgmental, factual based discussions with the potential to save lives,” said Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan.
In Victoria, paramedics responded to more drug overdoses at festivals in the first three months of 2024 than during all of 2023.
“If young people are reaching out and are asking for information about their health, about their safety and we have the power to give that to them then why on earth wouldn’t we?”
Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell also welcomes the policy.
“We have the evidence to show that pill testing does not increase drug use,” Purcell said.
“A really important thing about a fixed site service is that we can send out health alerts to people year round about unsafe drugs, unsafe substances in the community that are travelling around,” she said.
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