The Tasmanian government has again ruled out allowing pill testing, despite expert calls for it to be introduced following organisers at a music festival over the weekend warning patrons in the wake of a fatality at the event.
The death of a man at the Panama festival in the state's north prompted organisers to address those at the three-day festival at Lone Star Valley — a property near Golconda, a 45-minute drive north of Launceston on Saturday.
"We don't know whether drugs were involved but we want to put your safety first, so this announcement is just to say don't take any recreational drugs," organiser Tim Carroll told the crowd.
While a coroner is yet to determine the cause of death, it isn't the first alert about drug use at a Tasmanian music festival — Falls Festival patrons were told in 2018 about a dangerous orange pill in circulation — but it has sparked calls for a wider discussion into drug testing for the state.
What is drug testing and where does Tasmania stand on it?
Despite several drug testing models being used internationally, Australia has so far been largely resistant to implementing similar models.
The Queensland government in February said it would introduce pill-testing at festivals — among other drug-related legislative reforms — but is still tendering for a testing provider.
The ACT is the only jurisdiction to allow fixed and onsite drug testing.
Backed by Pill Testing Australia, the CanTEst Health and Drug Checking Service uses a face-to-face service run by graduate chemists.
Potential drug users can have their drugs chemically analysed at a fixed site and, although their drugs aren't confiscated, they are provided advice about the potentially dangerous substance.
A waiver must also be signed by participants which states they have been informed of the drug's content.
Despite providing a model for other states and territories — and successfully identifying deadly contaminants in some of the drugs tested — the service stalled earlier this year after a rise in insurance premiums made it unaffordable.
And the Tasmania government remains opposed to following in its lead.
Attorney-General Elise Archer said the Liberal government of Jeremy Rockliff did not support pill testing and would not introduce any legislation to decriminalise illegal drugs.
"Drugs that are illegal are exactly that for many reasons. They often result in addiction and serious medical issues, as well as destroy lives, ultimately lining the pockets of criminals," Ms Archer said.
Calls for stakeholder meeting over drug policy reform
But it is a change the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Council of Tasmania is in support of.
ATDC director Jackie Hallam said an expert group of stakeholders should be convened to explore what drug testing could look like in Tasmania.
"There are many different models, and all of it is part of a wider health approach to this issue," she said.
"We would love to start the conversation and get some festival guidelines in place and reduce the harm for Tasmanians who attend festivals."
Ms Hallam said the adoption of drug reform policies in other states had created a stimulus for change.
"That does create a momentum for people to realise these are sensible approaches," she said.
"Evaluation from other states and other countries shows that these sorts of approaches that reduce the harm from drugs do not lead to more people taking drugs.
"The other thing it does is it educates people who are running the festival, police, and health about what drugs are out there."
Not all health bodies are convinced
Rural Health Tasmania remains opposed to drug testing.
Chief executive officer Robert Waterman has previously expressed concern with providing drug testing services over what he said was the "false premise" that party drugs, such as MDMA, were safe even if they contained no additional substances.
"For some people it gives a false sense of security … it normalises drug use and we want to go away from that," Mr Waterman said.
But Ms Hallam said evidence of drug testing sites at festivals across the world over the past three decades had already demonstrated drug testing did not promote more drug use.
"There are fears that then more people will use drugs, but evaluation has shown in other countries that these services target people who are already using, and it reduces harm in those people who have already chosen to use," she said.
However, while drug testing could reduce harm for festival-goers and drug users, the best health advice was to avoid drug consumption, she said.
"A pill testing service never says, 'this drug is now safe to use', it merely says 'this drug is or is not what you thought it was'," she said.
"It is about the safety of the actual drug, but it is also about how the individual will be affected."
An 'Australian model' needed
For the clinical lead of Canberra's pill testing clinics, Dr David Caldicott, the nation's unwillingness to green-light drug testing is a political, rather than ideological, issue.
"A lot of countries now are changing their approach to drugs, and the issue that politicians have is working out how to pivot on what they've been saying," he said.
"The rhetoric that they've used has painted them into a corner and it's really up to the doctors and the experts to help them with the rhetoric.
"The impetus now is clearly in the direction of addressing drugs as an issue of harm, rather than as an issue of ideology."
With several suitable models used internationally, Dr Caldicott said finding a model that Australians trust has been a crucial part of the ACT-based pill testing program.
"The attitudes and approaches to drugs from society in Australia probably mean we need to have an Australian approach," he said.
"The three points that we deliver on in the ACT is medical involvement; very strong analytical expertise and capabilities; and an ethical approach governed by a charter."
