ACT Greens launch petition for pill testing at music festivals

The ACT Greens party has launched a petitionto lobby Labor to trial pill testing at music festivals.

The party’s Shane Rattenbury says that the Australian Capital Territory could, and should, take the lead in a national solution for an alarmingly high rate of drug overdoses at festivals over the summer.

“The law and order approach to drug use hasn’t worked, and across Australia people are getting sick, and dying as a result,” says Rattenbury.

“The ACT has a real opportunity as a progressive jurisdiction to lead the way in harm minimisation, and influence other states and territories to follow suit.

“Canberra is an ideal location to get this initiative started. The ACT Government already has the power to authorise bodies to do pill testing.

“Police already exercise discretion by not targeting people attending drug and alcohol services, because they understand the benefits they provide.

“We are small enough to keep a trial controlled and manageable, but we are big enough to have several large, well-attended music festivals.

Bad batches of drugs have previously plagued ACT festivals but no deaths at festivals have resulted. But drug confiscation at last December’s Spilt Milk in Canberra showed fans were not being deterred by police presence at these festivals. Spilt Milk drew 20,000 people to Commonwealth Park.

So far, neither of the two major parties have supported pill testing. But ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has said that the Government was open to looking at options that increased the safety of festival attendees.

Responding to the petition, Barr told the Canberra Times, “A health-focused and evidence-based policy doesn’t usually start with one political party making a political demand on another political party.

“There is a huge and complex range of legal and health implications that needs to be considered before any formal pill testing service could operate safely. It is naive and irresponsible to pretend these issues don’t exist.

“What does a ’government-supported pill testing trial’ actually look like? Are the Greens proposing the Government validates that pills are safe?”

The Greens initiated a push for pill-testing in August 2016. It pledged to push the idea after the ACT elections in October, in the next Legislative Assembly.

Earlier this year, Professor Gabrielle Cooper, who was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for her services to the pharmacy sector, urged the introduction of testing labs at festivals as there were no DIY kits where people could test them in the privacy of their homes.

“No one would consider having a breathalyser test at a pub a bad idea, so having a pill testing facility at a rave would make sense,” she said.

The petition can be found at keepcanberrasafe.org.au.