Testing and tunes: Could we see pill-testing at a festival as soon as next month?

The University of Canberra have confirmed it’ll support pill testing at the upcoming Groovin’ The Moo festival, set to be held on its grounds.

Source: SBS

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That’s as long as everyone agrees – the ACT government, police, pill testers and the festival promoters. 

There’s a good chance they’ll get that agreement from the government and police, given both groups were in favour of the process at last year’s Spilt Milk festival. The testing ended up being canned by festival promoters just weeks out from the event. 

Despite the critics, drugs are a pretty present part of festival life. A 2016 study of festival-goers found 73% had taken an illicit substance in the previous year – more than half of that group said they’d be up for pill testing if it was available. That’s what advocates argue is a key reason pill testing makes festivals safer – if we educate people about what’s in the pills, they’re less likely to consume the nasty stuff and so in theory we should see fewer deaths.

Emergency specialist David Caldicott backs that. He says a significant number of young people choose not to take the drugs if there’s substances in them other than what they expected. However, not everyone’s convinced. When The Feed spoke to forensic toxicologist Andrew Leibie last year, he wasn’t sold on the quality of testing available. He had concerns certain risky substances could go undetected. 

Promoters have told The Feed that for now,  they‘re still consulting with the other stakeholders about how to proceed. Groovin the Moo’s university location mean the decision would largely come down to whether the promoter wants it – and if the ACT government agrees.

Some hurdles still remain, but it does seem like this is the closest Australia has come to implementing official pill testing at a mainstream music festival.