A proposal for a year-long pill-testing trial in Victoria will be considered by cabinet after Premier Jacinta Allan called overdoses of teens at festivals an “unimaginable” horror.
Premier Jacinta Allan says a proposed year-long pill-testing trial in Victoria would help avoid the “unimaginable” horror of parents losing their children to overdoses at music festivals.
“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, and that is why we’ve got some advice coming from the Department of Health.” The ACT trialled a mobile testing site at a music festival in 2018 and has since opened fixed pill-testing sites. Queensland opened its first permanent pill-testing centre in Brisbane in April.
Caldicott said the Victorian drug-checking proposal was timely because nitazenes – a new group of dangerous synthetic opioids more potent than fentanyl – had been found in pills tested in the ACT this year. “There’s always another drug coming through, that’s part of the problem,” he said. Earlier this year, Greens leader Samantha Ratnam asked the Parliamentary Budget Office to calculate the cost of a two-year pill-testing trial, including a fixed testing facility and mobile testing that would rove between festivals. The office found the trial would cost about $3.7 million.
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