Benefits Of Pill Testing

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Joseph Pham, 23 years of age, Diana Nguyen, 21 years of age, Callum Brosnan, only 19 years of age and my son, nineteen year old Alex Ross-King are some of the latest victims of drug deaths at recent music festivals. Each had very different circumstances, Alex took just one pill that he believed was ecstasy but was a dangerous, toxic drug PMA. People are dying at drastic rates as a result of faulty party drugs that contain lethal substances. All this could be avoided so simply if the government placed just one pill testing station at each festival that for free, made sure people who have decided to do drugs can at least know they are not at risk of dying because they contained lethal substances. I believe this is something Alex would have used, something that could have saved his life.

A major argument is that pill testing at festivals is condoning the use of drugs but they are inescapable, drug culture has been alive for years and years and is only becoming a prominent issue. Young people will do them despite the law, therefore a better thing for the government to do is to enable pill testing. Rather than condoning drug use, it gives people more information on what they will be putting into their body which leads to more informed, smarter decisions associated with illicit drug use.

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Last September, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklan extended her condolences to a family who lost their son at a Sydney music festival, but has still rejected calls for pill testing and denies pill testing works saying that this regime is giving the “greenlight to take these drugs” and drugs are “deemed safe, and you have multiple deaths as a result” but Dr Caldicott, the pioneer of pill testing said this is a misunderstanding of how pill testing works “you will not be told at any stage that your drug is safe.” Prior to testing process each person is advised the test does not provide evidence of drug purity, safety, dosage or information on how they will individually respond to the substance.

The Drug and Alcohol Foundation says “Drug checking services tend to have three main goals: to prevent people from using especially dangerous or contaminated substances, to communicate safer-use messages, and improve users factual knowledge about substances and risks.” For example, if a group of strangers have all gone and tested their drugs and they all come back positive to lethal substances the reaction would lead to them throwing these drugs out and in the future might also lead them to not buy substances as they have now seen what they could contain. These people could then also create change and tell their friends about how harmful they can be, meaning more people making more informed and better decisions for themselves.

The protection of life should be the main concern for everyone throughout their everyday life, making decisions that don’t hurt anybody. For a doctor, this is their life, every single day, it’s their main role and concern. This is essentially why doctors support drug testing and many politicians do not. I’m not saying that politicians ignore and disregard human life, but for them drug testing is another thing they are responsible for upholding and making sure it is a properly laid out law, rather than just the idea of protecting people. In April this year, the first pill testing trial in Australia was done at Grooving the Moo in Canberra. The statistics of the first one show that there was:

234 participants , 174 samples were tested, 50% of the samples were ‘other’ (lactose, sweetener, paint), 50% was pure MDMA, seven of the samples came back positive as deadly substances.

This is an incredible result for the very first one, several lives could have been lost but they were not because of pill testing. Many people think that this is the first look into pill testing but it first emerged in the early 1990s in the Netherlands (where it now is apart of the national drug policy and pill testing services are routinely available in several Eurpoean countries, including Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Spain and France. It is a widely recognized and appreciated system that works to protect people. There is no doubt that it will work in Australia especially because a study showed Australians are among the leading consumers of ecstacy in the world, This is clearly conveying that we need to make this happen or the reality is our young Australians are going to keep dying from accidental overdoses or lethal substances.

Another massive question that people are asking is, are participants actually throwing away their tested drugs and making these so-called better decisions or is it all just a pointless system that won’t have any benefits to the lives of young Australians. YES, participants are making better and informed decisions. Research from Austria shows 50% of those who had their drugs tested said the results affected their consumption choices. Two thirds said they would not consume the drug and would warn friends in case of negative results. Pill testing is not, will not and cannot be a waste of time and money.

Pill testing is a ploy to assist young people in giving them the chance to make life affecting decisions. I am sure you can see why this is such an incredible step in the right direction that assists young people in truly understanding how they are putting their lives at risk every time they take these drugs. I don’t understand the decision the Australian Government has made to not implement these booths at every festival, even to supply easy access kits that you could test substances yourself with. We should all work together to stop lives from being lost as a result of illicit drug-related overdoses and/or fatal substances placed in the drugs themselves. There are clearly many benefits to Pill testing. Young people have made it clear through surveys and it has been shown through real-life trials of drug testing that they want this to be a reality and it will be used. Critics argue that it will send the wrong message but the message we are currently sending is we don’t want young people to make better decisions and we don’t want to reduce harm from illicit drug use.

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