Lower House debates pill testing trial

The Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Pill Testing) Bill 2024 authorises the operation of both mobile and fixed drug-checking services and establishes a licensing framework to regulate those services.  
  
The mobile service is planned to begin this summer and attend up to 10 festivals and events throughout the 18-month trial.

“ 'The outdated approach of just saying no, just isn’t working.' ”

Danny Pearson, Member for Essendon

A fixed site is due to open in mid-2025 and be co-located in a health service in inner Melbourne, close to nightlife and transport.  
  
In his second reading speech Danny Pearson, Member for Essendon, said the legislation was about a ‘health-led, harm minimisation approach to addressing the impacts of drug use’.  
  
He said that while population-level drug consumption had been relatively stable in Victoria for the past 20 years, harm had increased significantly, especially in the past 10 years. He said that was most likely due to both a shift in drug usage towards novel synthetic drugs and the increased potency of synthetics such as methamphetamine.

‘In order to deliver effective policy solutions to reduce drug harms, we must first acknowledge that drug related harms are increasing – and the outdated approach of just saying no, just isn’t working,’ he said.  
  
Fatal overdoses have increased by 61 per cent since 2010, with almost 6,000 Victorians dying of an overdose over that period. Nearly three-quarters of those deaths were accidental.

Emma Kealy, Shadow Minister for Mental Health, in opposing the bill said pill testing alone would not stop drug overdoses.

‘Pill testing may inform people about the choices they make about taking drugs, but it will not stop drug overdoses. It will not stop people dying from fatal overdoses either. I wish it were the case – all of us wish that that was the case – but we cannot overpromise and underdeliver when it comes to drug use in Victoria,’ she said.  
  
Tim Richardson, Member for Mordialloc said pursuing a harm minimisation policy was about facing reality.

“ ‘What a false sense of security that would give a young person who knows nothing about drug taking.' ”

Roma Britnell, Member for South-West Coast

‘We hope that children and our kids in the future will not use illicit drugs, but just in the last 12 months 1 million people have taken cocaine. That is the reality that we are confronting, and one in six Australians has taken illicit drugs,’ he said.

Member for South-West Coast, Roma Britnell said the pill testing regime would not be able to detect many novel illicit drugs like nitazenes and synthetic opioids.

‘What a false sense of security that would give a young person who knows nothing about drug taking when they hand over their drug and they are told it has got certain things in it. But they cannot tell them what it has not got in it, so the testing advice will leave the person who is trying to feel confident by doing the right thing, they are thinking, by getting it tested without all the information that they need,’ she said.  

“ 'Regular, loving, caring everyday parents who have come in and sat with me and told me about the realities of what their kids are up against.' ”

Jacinta Allan, Premier of Victoria

Premier Jacinta Allan acknowledged that she had previously not been in favour of pill testing.  
  
‘What really convinced me was meeting Victorian parents of children who have been deeply and personally impacted by this issue – regular, loving, caring everyday parents who have come in and sat with me and told me about the realities of what their kids are up against,’ she said.  
  
She told the Legislative Assembly that in the first three months of 2024 paramedics had responded to more overdoses at festivals than for all of 2023.

“ 'After appropriate counselling clients often discard their drugs.' ”

Tim Read, Member for Brunswick

Member for Brighton, James Newbury descibed the bill as ‘a green light to illicit drugs’. 
   
‘We must always in this place stand up for what is right, and saying to children, ‘Use drugs when we test them’ is wrong. It is absolutely wrong. It is wrong in principle,’ he said. 
  
Tim Read, Member for Brunswick, said the experience from similar programs run in the ACT demonstrated that the harm reduction that accompanied pill testing ‘is as important as, or more important than, the drug testing process itself.’ 

'After appropriate counselling clients often discard their drugs,’ he said. 

The bill also provides for rolling out vending machines for intranasal naloxone, a medication that can reverse an overdose from opioids, including heroin, fentanyl, and prescription opioid medications.

You can read more of the debate in Hansard, including further debate on October 17.

The bill will now go to the Legislative Council for its consideration.