The Australian government are notorious for their current conservative views, constant lambasting of youth culture and general ignorance towards what the majority of people want. As of this morning, the ACT government have confirmed that they will allow pill-testing to take occur Canberra’s Spilt Milk festival this November. Welcome to 2017, kids.
This decision has been concluded after lengthy negotiation process between the government and the Safety Testing Advisory Service at Festivals and Events (STA-SAFE) consortium, with Minister for Health and Wellbeing Meegan Fitzharris saying,
“Pill testing means young people who are considering taking drugs can be informed about what’s really in the their pills and how potent they are. There is no evidence that having pill testing available results in increased illicit drug taking.”
This is a hugely positive step forward for festival safety – pill testing has occurred at European festivals for years as a serious harm reduction technique and have constantly reaped more positive outcomes than law and order techniques.
This is how the plan will action at the fest:
“There will be a short survey taken about what drugs people think they’re taking. And then there will be a very small scraping of the pill they’ll provide for testing and analysis. That normally takes about 10 to 15 minutes, the composition of the substance will be analysed. It will give quite a detailed analysis of the content of that drug and the levels of the different chemicals in that drug” President of HRA Gino Vumbaca.
Nearly half of Australians (42%) have tried illicit drugs at least once – with festival season on the horizon, drug related instances and casualties often come hand in hand. The only way forward is harm reduction and a mutual understanding – props to you ACT Government.
Source: Triple J’s The Hack
