MEDIA RELEASE
Permanent festival pill testing announcement welcome but real reform found wanting
2.9.26
Today’s announcement by the NSW Government to resume drug checking services at festivals is welcome but fails to address the fact that the vast majority of overdoses take place at home, not at festivals.
“We welcome this announcement by Minister Park today but it has come up short and will cost lives,” Dr Will Tregoning, CEO of Unharm said.
“While we welcome the NSW Government’s acknowledgement today that festival drug checking works and should continue, festivals cover only a really narrow slice of drug use.
“These services shouldn’t be restricted only to people who can afford to attend festivals – they need to be expanded to community based sites in NSW.
“An analysis found 73% of MDMA related deaths occurred in private residences and only 7% at festivals or dance parties.
“A festival only service can’t reach most people who use drugs, it can’t provide year round market surveillance, and it can’t generate the geographic data needed for a robust early warning system.
“On multiple occasions in the past two years, people in NSW overdosed on an opioid they never meant to take.
“These happened in the community, not at a festival,” Will said.
“Now that these festival services are to be made permanent Unharm is urging the government to do what the evidence demands – to establish fixed community sites in Sydney, then extend reach across NSW through a distributed model already working well in Canada.
“The ACT, Victoria, New Zealand and many other countries around the world have all moved to community based drug checking and NSW should now too,” Dr Tregoning said.
Unharm’s policy report Drug checking in NSW: Recommendations for the next phase sets out what NSW should build next, drawing on input from researchers and practitioners in Australia, Canada and the UK.
The need for these services is well established and widely supported. 64% of Australians supported drug checking according to the 2022-23 National Drug Strategy Household Survey.
Unharm campaigns to reform drug laws, replace punishment with health focused support, and reduce the social harms caused by prohibition.
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