Premier Jacinta Allan is backing a proposed pill testing trial, telling journalists it could prevent the “unimaginable” horror of children dying of drug overdoses at music festivals.
The Victorian Department of Health has been tasked with examining options for a pill testing trial, with The Age revealing on Sunday that a proposal for a year-long trial is set to be taken to cabinet as early as this week.
According to reports, the pill testing trial is likely to include mobile teams providing a service at music festivals where patrons can get illicit drugs tested for potency and contaminants, as well as providing advice to patrons on safer drug use.
Premier Allan told journalists she did not want to pre-empt the conversations she would be having with her cabinet colleagues, but that she came at the issue “as both a parent and as Premier.”
“As a parent, the horror of your son or daughter heading off with friends to have a good time, to go to a festival, and then to not come home is just unimaginable,” the Premier said on Sunday.
“And that’s why, as both a parent and Premier, my focus is always on looking at ways that we can support young people to be safe and to protect young people.”
Ms Allan also said she had particularly been influenced by the spike in the number of drug overdoses that had occurred over the summer, as well as the types of drugs that had been circulating around music festivals.
In January, nine people were taken to hospital in January after overdosing at Hardmission Festival after taking MDMA.
The incident sparked a renewed push for pill testing, with Premier Allan telling journalists at the time that she was “seeking advice” on the issue.
“There are no current plans to change the government’s policy settings on drug checking. However, I am seeking and waiting for further advice from the Department of Health, because we saw the weekend before last a number of people hospitalised after attending a music festival,” Ms Allan said at the time.
Despite stopping short of supporting pill testing, the Premier’s stance was a departure from her predecessor Daniel Andrews, who had consistently opposed pill testing because he did not believe “you can take these drugs at any level and be safe”.
“Pill testing can often give people the sense that it is safe to take these drugs. And it isn’t. The pharmacology, the evidence, is very, very clear,” he said.
“The best way to minimise harm is to acknowledge that there’s no safe level of which you can consume these drugs”.
The Victorian Coalition has also consistently opposed pill testing, with shadow police minister Brad Battin saying he opposes it because kids should be told “it’s ok to say no”.
“We need to say to kids and young people it’s not ok to take drugs,” Mr Battin said in January.
“We need to improve the amount of counselling we’ve got available for these kids for addiction; we need to make sure that kids can get referrals and referred in the right direction, rather than going in and saying it’s ok to have the drugs at these festivals.”
