Just 27 tests have been conducted so far at schoolies, equating to $8000 per test, says Queensland’s health minister.
Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls has questioned the cost and effectiveness of free pill testing at schoolies week on the Gold Coast, casting doubt on its retention at next year’s festivities.Pill testing has been offered at schoolies on the Gold Coast for the first time this year, but it could be the last.“ supposed to be about harm reduction – 27 pills out of, what, 40,000 kids turning up at schoolies? The numbers don’t tell you that it’s actually being taken up,” he said.
Labor opposition frontbencher Shannon Fentiman, who served as health minister in the Miles government, said the program’s cost should not be the government’s main motivating factor.“The AMA, doctors, health experts have all called on the LNP to not scrap pill testing because it saves lives,” she said.
Nicholls said the testing was “not a panacea”, and there were some concerns about how the program had been run so far.
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