Pill Testing is coming to Australian Music Festivals

of the following month The rabbit eats lettuce The festival will go down in history as the first event in an Australian state to offer pill testing services.

Set for the Easter long weekend, March 28 to April 1, the electronic and dance specialist festival is at home near Warwick on Queensland's south-east corridor – Australia's first state or territory to commit to supporting pill testing on an ongoing basis.

Party-goers will have access to free, voluntary and confidential pill testing by a “suitably qualified chemist”, a state government statement said, bringing in almost A$1 million ($660,000) in investment over two years.

“I'm excited to support new and innovative services that will help reduce the harm of illicit drug use,” comments Health, Mental Health and Ambulances Minister Shannon Femiman.

These services, Fentiman continues, “are about harm minimization. We don't want people ending up in our emergency departments – or worse, losing their lives.”

According to figures released by the Queensland Government, 2,231 drug-related deaths were reported in Australia in 2021 – the equivalent of five deaths every day.

“That's 2,231 too many deaths,” Fentiman continues, “and we know that number will continue to rise if we don't act now.”

In 2019, two people died afterwards festival-drug-checking-bown-hills” target=”_blank”>drug consumption in Rabbit Eats Lettuce.

Harm Reduction Australia has been contracted to provide “several” festival-based services in 2024 and 2025 following an open market tender process. The State Government has also engaged the University of Queensland to conduct an evaluation of services and develop a statewide monitoring process.

Also, through a healthcare partnership, fixed services will operate at two locations in south-east Queensland, including one in Bowen Hills, central Brisbane, and “at least one festival-based service” in 2024.

It's a “step in the right direction for reducing drug-related harm,” says Rabbits Eat Lettuce festival organizer Eric Lamir. festival-warwick/103605592″ target=”_blank”>Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and, during the process, the police were “extremely supportive” in the build-up to the rally. Data collected from chemical tests will be shared with the festival's medical staff, which “means our paramedics and doctors will be able to have up-to-date data on drugs that may be circulating at the event”.

Public debate over pill testing in Australia has been ongoing for years and first entered a trial phase at the Groovin the Moo festival in the Australian Capital Territory in April 2018, where two potentially lethal samples were identified and half of the drugs tested were found to contain no psychoactive substances. substances.

With pill testing services properly launched at the 15th edition of Rabbits Eat Lettuce, it marks a “significant milestone” “in Queensland's ongoing efforts to reduce drug-related harm,” comments a Pill Testing Australia spokesperson, “and we know that festival goers and their families and friends will greatly appreciate the availability of this vital public health service.”

read more here.