The Beyond the Valley music festival will trial Victoria’s first pill testing service this summer.
The State Government passed legislation last month allowing drug-checking trials to take place at summer music festivals.
The confidential and anonymous testing process will take roughly 15 minutes.
Police operations, which could include sniffer dogs and strip searches, will continue as normal.
Premier Jacinta Allan told TDA pill testing “saves lives,” and denied that it’s a “green light” to use illegal drugs.
Victoria
From January to March 2024, Victorian paramedics responded to more overdoses than all of 2023.
According to the Victorian Coroner’s Court, 2022 (550 deaths) and 2023 (547) were the deadliest years for drug overdoses in the state in the last decade.
In January, nine people were hospitalised after overdosing at the Hardmission festival in Melbourne.
Pill testing
Pill testing is a harm-minimisation service. Drug samples submitted for testing undergo chemical analysis to identify potentially harmful or unexpected ingredients.
Results from drug checks will generally relate to the strength and contents of the drug.
Once the drugs are tested, health professionals will run through the results of the test and provide advice.
A study of drug-related deaths at music festivals from 2000 to 2019, published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, found most deaths were “unintentional and could potentially be prevented”.
Researchers recommended pill testing “as one of multiple measures to reduce harm at music festivals”.
The ACT became the first jurisdiction to trial legal drug-checking in 2018. Queensland has since introduced fixed pill testing sites and trialled a mobile service at Gold Coast Schoolies.
Legislation
Earlier this year, the Victorian Government passed legislation allowing for pill testing trials.
The legalisation allows for fixed and mobile drug-testing centres to be set up across the state.
The Government’s plans allow for up to 10 festivals to trial pill testing over the next 18 months.
Beyond the Valley will host the first pill testing trial between 28 December and 1 January.
First trial
Beyond the Valley is a music festival held over New Year’s Eve in south-western Victoria.
Roughly 35,000 people are expected to attend the 18+ festival, a majority of whom will be under 30. Six youth support and health groups will staff the pop-up pill testing centre and drug information hub.
It will take roughly 15 minutes for drugs to be tested and up to 200 samples can be tested per day. Drug analysis, usually in the form of pills or powders, is used to identify harmful or unexpected ingredients.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan told TDA she was previously sceptical about the effectiveness of pill testing.
However, Allan said since “listening to parents of kids who had either a really terrible experience or kids who’d lost their mates… my perspectives have changed”.
“Young people are smart, they just want the information and we’ve got to give it to them.
“And if we’ve got the opportunity to give them that information and do it in a way that might save a life, then it’s absolutely worth doing.”
Police
Police operations at the festival will still go ahead as normal to detect and crack down on illegal drug usage.
This could include strip searches, sniffer dogs, and pat-downs for drug searches.
Allan told TDA “the use and possession of illicit substances is still illegal.”
“How police respond to those incidences are a matter for police. What we’re providing is the space where the health advice can be provided.”
Opposition
The Victorian Liberal-National Coalition voted against the pill testing laws when it passed in October.
Shadow Health Minister Georgie Crozier told Parliament: “These drugs are not safe at any level.”
Crozier argued pill testing tents were not the appropriate places to be getting information about drugs.
She said festival attendees “actually should be informed before they rock up to a festival.”
