Who gets your data from pill testing at music festivals?

Pill testing has made significant strides across Australia, becoming a permanent service in the ACT and Queensland, with Victoria and NSW following suit with trials. 

But as more people take advantage of this initiative, many are left wondering:

Where does the data go, and how is it used?

On Wednesday morning’s episode of The Briefing, we are joined by RMIT drug policy expert, Associate Professor Monica Barratt, who has some ideas for what our policymakers could be doing better.

The process of testing drugs at music festivals allows individuals to learn whether their substances are safe or potentially harmful. 

While this service has been praised for helping reduce overdose deaths, Barratt is calling for better data-sharing practices.

“You might be able to test a couple of hundred samples per day, and we know there are millions of people using drugs every day across Australia,” Barratt said. 

“Obviously we can increase the capacity of drug checking services and ideally people would personally access them, but not everyone is going to be able to do that. It’s not practical,” he said.

According to Barratt, pill testing data is crucial for understanding trends in the local drug market and improving public safety. 

However, much of the data collected remains at an individual level. 

Barrat said the results are typically anonymous and are not used in any criminal investigations.

“It’s still at a completely anonymous level and this information that is generated through the chemical analysis of drugs in drug checking, it’s not the sort of information that can be done as evidence for any kind of criminal activity.”

The data collected from pill testing could offer insights into dangerous trends, such as the presence of deadly substances in pills, which can then be communicated to the public to prevent harm. 

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