Ministers statements: pill testing
Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12:16): I rise to update the house on how the Allan Labor government’s pill-testing service is helping save lives and reduce harm. Over the Labour Day long weekend our pill-testing service attended Pitch Music & Arts Festival near Moyston. Members will remember that this is the same festival where last year, tragically, a young Victorian man lost his life after overdosing in the extreme heat, and I want to again extend my condolences to the loved ones and that young man’s family. This year’s festival took place over another hot long weekend, but with an important difference: as part of our pill-testing service, this year’s event hosted a multidisciplinary team of chemists, healthcare professionals and peer workers to provide festivalgoers with access to vital health information to help them make safer and more informed decisions. More than 550 samples were tested over the three-day event, and for 70 per cent of the 480 festivalgoers who used the service it was the first time they had ever had a conversation with a health professional about their drug use. In the conversations experts were able to provide patrons with potentially life-saving information about the risks of consuming certain substances in hot conditions and the steps they can take to reduce those risks. But the benefits go far beyond these conversations: testing conducted at the festival led to the rapid issuing of two statewide drug advisories, including one about high-dosage MDMA and the dangers of consumption in hot conditions. These advisories were quickly shared far and wide, with alerts broadcast at other festivals over the long weekend. Quite simply, this is harm reduction in action and it is why, under Labor, pill testing is here to stay.