Premier announces state will trial pill testing during summer festival season, saying evidence shows it ‘works’
Victoria will trial pill testing this summer, the premier Jacinta Allan has announced, after a spate of drug overdoses at festivals in the first quarter of 2024.“Young people smart and they want information,” she said in a video posted to social media. “They want a medical professional who can tell them exactly what it is and exactly what it does without telling them it’s safe… That’s how we change young people’s behaviour and even reduce drug use, and that’s all pill testing is about.
Allan said the move was designed to prevent “every parent’s worst nightmare”, of their child not coming home from a party or music festival and she pointed to the high number of overdoses in the state so far in 2024. They include a mass overdose at a electronic music festival at Flemington in January, where nine people ended up in hospital, eight of whom were placed in comas.
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