Victoria’s mobile pill testing service will return to three major events over summer, with Spilt Milk on 6 December, Dangerous Goods 6XXL on 24 January and Pitch Music and Arts Festival from 6 to 10 March now locked in.
The announcement confirms the next round of sites for the state’s ongoing pill testing trial, which aims to reduce drug harm at large-scale events.
The service is free, confidential and run by a specialist team who test substances on the spot and give health advice based on the results. If a high-risk substance is detected, organisers can push out rapid alerts through social media and on-site signage to warn other festivalgoers.
The program follows last summer’s rollout across five major festivals, where almost 1,400 samples were tested. Eleven per cent of those samples were not what patrons believed they had purchased. Ten drug notifications were issued, including two that escalated to statewide alerts.
This season’s return comes amid rising concern about synthetic opioids and other hazardous substances circulating in Australia. Two recent warnings were triggered by counterfeit oxycodone found to contain nitazenes, a synthetic opioid up to 500 times stronger than heroin.
Alongside the mobile service, the state’s fixed pill testing site in Fitzroy will extend its hours over summer to meet growing demand. From 1 December, the service will open longer on Thursdays and Fridays, with extra operating days in the lead-up to New Year’s Eve including 22, 23, 29, 30 and 31 December.
In its first six weeks, the Fitzroy site tested more than 500 samples and held harm-reduction conversations with nearly 300 people. While most samples contained what users expected, one in eight tested positive for an unexpected psychoactive substance that could have caused serious harm.
Minister for Mental Health Ingrid Stitt said the evidence from last season shows pill testing is delivering practical results. “The results from last festival season speak for themselves: pill testing works,” she said.
“It doesn’t encourage young people to use drugs but allows them to see what’s really in their substances and make informed health decisions.”
She added, “With a rise in dangerous synthetic opioids, this service is more important than ever – it offers a sensible health-led approach to reduce drug harms, while also delivering critical drug surveillance information.”
