Push for pill-testing at festivals in New Zealand

The New Zealand Government is considering the idea of allowing pill-testing at music festivals, following a report that indicated that users were taking drugs that were more dangerous than they originally thought.

Community group KnowYourStuffNZ conducted secret drug testing ateight music festivals last summer, with the results revealing that of 300 drugs sampled, 31% were not what consumers had expected.

Almost 2 out of 3 festivalgoers ditched the drugs after it was revealed what the substances actually contained.

The group’s spokesperson Wendy Allison highlight thatdrugs thought to be LSD or MDMA had 39 distinct psychoactive substances in total.

“Without drug checking, people go to events and use drugs which they purchase illicitly with no assurances that what they have is what they think it is, or what quality and strength it is,” Allison said in a statement.

“So, they take a massive additional risk on something we now have the technology to address.”

Allison’s call for drug testing to be carried out without fear of penalty or prosecution were supported by the NZ Drug Foundation’s Executive Director Ross Bell.

The tests used the Foundation’s new Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, which can test the chemical makeup of tabs, pills and powders.

Bell has called for the law to be changed, explaining that legislation introduced 42-years-ago is now irrelevant in dealing with a modern drug market and does not acknowledge advances in drug-testing technology that could be used to save lives.

“Festival organisers are clamouring for drug checking services but are fearful of the legal risks,” he said.

“We need to remove any legal barrier to these life-saving services.

“I can see a time in the near future when these testing services won’t just be mainstream but even mandatory at festivals and large events.”

Under current law, anyonewho allows their premises to be used for drug intake in New Zealand faces up to 10 years jail.

Festival promoters could lose their liquor licence and permit to hold events on council-owned land, effectively putting them out of business.

The idea of legal drug tests at festivals is being debated this week at a two-day symposium called by Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne.

Minister Dunne has labelled pill-testing logical and “common sense” but the Government has not committed as yet to changes in the law – however a review of the 1975 Misuse of Drugs Act is scheduled to occur within the next two years.

The Drug Foundation appealed for the Act to be repealed, and replaced with one that treats drug use as a health issue and not a criminal issue.

In a show of further support for the drug testing cause, a PledgeMe campaign was launched this week to raise $55,000 by July 31 to fund a second drug testing spectrometer, to ensure more free tests could be conductedat a wider array of festivals.

Currently each test costs $35 to process.

Governments in Australia have been resistant to repeated calls for pill testing at festivals, usually claiming it would encourage illicit drug use. The ACT government, however, is putting together a roundtableto discuss the initiative, and it may be trialled as early as November, at Canberra’s Spilt Milk festival.