Victoria to open Australia's second permanent pill testing site

The pill testing trial site at the Yours and Owls Music Festival in Wollongong, in March (AAP)

The pill testing trial site at the Yours and Owls Music Festival in Wollongong, in March Source: AAP / DEAN LEWINS

Victoria has confirmed plans to open its first fixed pill-testing site in Fitzroy, one of Melbourne's most popular nightlife areas.The service will offer testing for most substances - and act as an early detection point for authorities on the lookout for highly dangerous synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and Nitazenes, which can be mixed with other drugs. The decision puts Victoria in a unique position on drug policy, as Australia's states and territories grapple with how to balance harm minimisation with increasingly tough law and order approaches.


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TRANSCRIPT

Here at the Hardmission festival, they like to party - just as the sign says.

The popular event at Werribee Racecourse in Melbourne's south-west was one of several sites selected as part of a pill testing trial in the state, after nine people were hospitalised from suspected overdoses in 2024.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said at the time she was well aware that some festival goers included drugs in their party experience - and the government wanted to keep them safe.

“We know that if a young person has a pill in their hand, they're at a music festival, they're intending to use it. Young people are also entitled to have access to health focused supportive advice about what is in that pill, and get the health advice that can then be wrapped around that young person."

The state government says the pill testing trials have been a roaring success, with almost 1400 samples checked.

MDMA, ketamine, and cocaine were the main drugs detected - but an estimated 11 percent of samples were not what the potential users expected their drugs to be.

On the back of that trial, the Allan Labor Government has now named the location of Victoria’s first fixed pill testing site in the inner north Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy.

Director Sarah Hiley has told Channel 9 it's going to be free and confidential when it opens in August.

"In this space, we'll actually have a private consultation room, the sample drop-off room. The lab is up at the end."

The service will offer testing for most pills, capsules, powders, crystals, and liquids - and act as an early detection point for authorities on the lookout for highly dangerous synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and Nitazenes, which can be mixed with other drugs.

Mental Health Minister Ingrid Stitt says it's about saving lives, not softening the government's stance on drugs.

"None of this means that it's legal to have drugs on you... This is a known drug use part of our city. So all those factors meant that this was a really good location."

The announcement means Victoria joins the ACT in being the only two jurisdictions in Australia with a fixed pill testing site.

Earlier this year, Queensland decided not to renew contracts for their own permanent testing sites at Brisbane's Bowen Hills and Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast, despite extremely potent synthetic opioids being found in Australian wastewater for the first time, substances up to 40 times more powerful than fentanyl.

The Queensland Mental Health Commission has been tasked instead with developing an overdose monitoring system.

The decision prompted Australian Medical Association Queensland president Dr Nick Yim to issue a statement that said without an early warning system like pill testing, he feared the closures would lead to higher rates of harm.

"It is disappointing the Crisafulli government, who was elected on a promise that they would listen to the experts, has once again dismissed the evidence supported by doctors... Without regulated testing, already vulnerable community members remain exposed to these hidden dangers."

Health Minister Tim Nicholls has stood by the decision to rip up the clinic contracts, citing the Liberal National Party's stance against drugs.

That's been backed by others in the government like small business minister Steve Minnikin.

"We don't believe there is any safe way to actually undertake illegal drugs. We will not be going down the pill testing path."

But in other states, like New South Wales, pill testing sites are still not off the table.

There's a 12 month trial currently underway at music festivals across the state that Premier Chris Minns has previously said will run their course.

"There is an essential contradiction to this change in policy. Drugs are illegal in the state yet we've made a decision to allow for pill testing at major music festivals... The government has made a decision to live with the contradiction rather than risk someone dying as a result of having it in place."


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Victoria to open Australia's second permanent pill testing site | SBS News