Festival operators say the NSW government's decision to trial pill testing at music festivals - will make the events safer. Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, Professor Michael Farrell, says testing has plenty of positives.
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00:00We know that they're possible to do and they haven't caused significant problems, is the first thing.
00:09And we know that they're occurring in the context where we're more concerned about new synthetic drugs coming into the system.
00:17And it's important that we have ways to gather information about what drugs are out there and how to warn people.
00:25But also to get the message across that not everybody's taking these drugs and not everybody at festivals is.
00:32But that those who are, we have to do everything we can to minimise the risks and harms.
00:38We know that there is overwhelming support by most health experts in favour of pill testing.
00:44It has taken governments a while to get on board.
00:47Why do you think the New South Wales government has now agreed at this point to a 12 month trial?
00:53Well, what has been nice is to see that the government has listened to the chairs of the drug summit that occurred a few weeks ago.
01:03And listened to the field in relation to the encouragement to do this.
01:09And to do it in the context of also undertaking an independent evaluation so that all information will be available.
01:17So it's very welcome to see them listening and acting in a partnership way across the field.
01:24And can you explain just how this will work in practical terms?
01:28So a festival goer turns up at a festival that has these pill testing facilities available.
01:34They have a small amount of illicit substance on them that they want to take.
01:38What are the next steps?
01:40Well, the critical issue is if somebody does roll up to where the testing facility is.
01:49They will be then offered the opportunity and they will get information about the contents.
01:58And ideally there's two functions of that.
02:02One is that the organisers can be aware of what types of drugs are in the system.
02:08But two is it is also establishing a contact with people.
02:13And they can be given harm reduction advice and advice about if there are inherent dangers.
02:19And so some people, if for instance we are concerned even though we've only had a small number of reports.
02:27We're concerned particularly around some adulterated drugs where we don't know what's in them that are causing overdoses.
02:35And it's important that we be able to have a way to detect those.
02:41And obviously it's still illegal to be in possession of these drugs.
02:45So what assurances can these people having their drugs tested, what assurances do they have that they're not going to be then picked up by police as soon as they exit those testing facilities?
02:57Well because this is a good example where public safety is paramount.
03:01And it's a partnership between health and criminal justice for people.
03:06It isn't about condoning drug use or anything.
03:09But it's a partnership so that health and law can work together in an adult and mature way.
03:17And so the police are on board in relation to doing this and have agreed as they did in the past around syringe change programs and the supervised injecting centre.
03:30Which is not to focus on it and to make sure that by leaving it be they're not disrupting the process.
03:38But they're working in partnership with the health agencies there.
03:42Now this trial starts in February which is a little bit of a shame in a way.
03:45Because it's missing a whole lot of the big festivals that we have over summer.
03:48But it will go for 12 months.
03:50How will its success be measured?
03:52Well I think as the Minister said this is not an insurance policy.
03:58So there is no silver bullets.
04:00There could be untoward events.
04:03And it's a question I think probably the best way in the first instance will be information on what drugs they're detecting.
04:12And an inference from that will be what sorts of overdoses have been prevented.
04:19There will clearly also be a measure of how many overdoses and what sorts of harms there are.
04:25But one has to interpret that quite carefully.
04:28Okay we'll have to leave it there.
04:30But a really interesting conversation.
04:31Thank you Michael Farrell.
04:32Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.
04:35You're welcome.