Victoria will trial pill testing this summer, the premier Jacinta Allan has announced, after a spate of drug overdoses at festivals in the first quarter of 2024.
Allan announced via an Instagram post on Monday night that the move was a “simple and commonsense way to save lives”.
“Young people smart and they want information,” she said in a video posted to social media. “They want a medical professional who can tell them exactly what it is and exactly what it does without telling them it’s safe… That’s how we change young people’s behaviour and even reduce drug use, and that’s all pill testing is about. It doesn’t make pills legal, but it does keep people safe. It exists around the world, and the evidence says it works.
A government source said legislation, which is expected to pass given cross-bench support, would come before parliament by the end of the year. The source said pill-testing would be rolled out at festivals by this summer and a fixed pill-testing site would be established in due course.
Allan said the move was designed to prevent “every parent’s worst nightmare”, of their child not coming home from a party or music festival and she pointed to the high number of overdoses in the state so far in 2024.
“Our paramedics responded to more drug overdoses at festivals in the first three months of this year than during all of last year,” she said.
“Let’s be clear, no drug is ever truly safe, but people deserve to know if that one pill will kill.”
The progressive bloc in Victorian parliament’s upper house introduced a joint bill to parliament last year, to introduce a pill testing scheme. They renewed their push in parliament this year after several overdoses at music festivals over the summer.
They include a mass overdose at a electronic music festival at Flemington in January, where nine people ended up in hospital, eight of whom were placed in comas.
In March, the Victorian government was urged to reassess its stance on pill-testing after the death of a man from a suspected drug overdose at Pitch music festival near Ararat, in the state’s south-west, in the early hours of Sunday but later died.
Georgie Purcell, MP for the Animal Justice Party, which was part of the crossbench coalition that introduced the joint bill last year, called the announcement “sensible, evidence and health-based policy”.
“This summer festival season will be safer,” she said. “We know young people take drugs. And we know that pill testing doesn’t increase drug use. Growing up and experimenting shouldn’t be a death sentence.”
Greens MP Aiv Puglielli celebrated the announcement, which he said came “after years and years of pressure from the Greens, the progressive crossbench, the experts and the community”.
“In jurisdictions like the ACT, they’ve just extended the service because they know it works,” Puglielli said. “It’s great to hear that pill testing is happening, now we need to make sure it’s rolled out widely and quickly by the Summer festival period in order to keep young people safe.
James Newbury, the Liberal state MP for Brighton, condemned the announcement on Monday night, posting on X: “No good parent wants dangerous illicit drugs legalised for children. And no responsible State Government should encourage children’s drug use. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Since 2021, five coronial recommendations have been made for drug checking services in Victoria.
Pill testing is legal in only two states in the country – Queensland and the ACT. The first fixed-site drug checking service was opened in Canberra in July 2022, which is funded until the end of 2024.
In April it was announced the first drug checking service in New South Wales would open at Sydney’s supervised injecting room, for a limited four-month trial. This announcement came after the government resisted calls to introduce pill testing at music festivals.
