The Beyond The Valley music festival will be the first pill testing trial site in Victoria, Premier Jacinta Allan has confirmed, with more expected to be revealed.
About 35,000 people are expected at the three-day festival which runs from December 28 to January 1 and is held at Barunah Plains in Hesse, west of Geelong – about an hour and a half from Melbourne’s CBD.
Allan said it would be Australia’s largest event offering the service, which evidence showed lives were saved by changing behavior.
“We’re not going to bury our heads in the sand,” she told reporters on Sunday.
“If a young person is at a festival and has a pill in their hand, they intend to use it, but they deserve that health-focused information.”
How will pill testing work at Beyond The Valley?
Allan said the pill testing service would operate from 1pm to 7pm each day of the festival and could check whether pills, capsules, powders and liquids contained potentially lethal substances.
A consortium – led by the Youth Support and Advocacy Service, Harm Reduction Victoria and The Loop Australia – will manage the service, supported by Melbourne Health and the University of Melbourne.
“We are aiming to get up to 200 samples a day into the lab,” said Cameron Francis, CEO of The Loop Australia.
The machines used are said to be able to provide a result within minutes and can identify “almost anything” – but they cannot give an indication of purity and, in some cases, may not be able to detect traces of chemicals harmful, Cameron said.
He said The Loop Australia’s “biggest concern” was the purity of MDMA, which had “increased” around the world.
“We know that when this purity increases, there are risks of overdose.”
This year, experts and authorities have also sounded the alarm over nitazenes, which can be up to 1,000 times more powerful than morphine, which in some cases, .
And the police?
The possession and supply of illicit drugs remains illegal and police powers to control drugs off-duty remain unchanged.
“The legislation requires that access to the pill testing service be provided confidentially,” Allan said.
“In a legal manner outside of this service, Victoria Police’s responsibilities remain in place, and it remains illegal to possess or consume illicit drugs.”
Where else will pill testing be rolled out in Victoria?
Beyond The Valley will be one of 10 festivals to offer these services.
The others have not yet been named, but Victorian Mental Health Minister Ingrid Stitt said pill testing would be offered at five festivals this summer and five more in 2025-26.
Stitt said the state government wanted to test the service at a “good mix” of regional and metropolitan locations.
The state government is also expected to open a fixed pill testing site by the middle of next year, in central Melbourne, which is expected to remain permanent after the 18-month trial ends.
Where else do pill testing services work?
In January, Allan sought advice from the Department of Health after at least 10 people were taken to hospital following suspicions of drug use at festivals.
Paramedics in Victoria responded to more drug overdoses in the first three months of 2024 than in all of 2023, much of which involved festivals and other events attended by young people, Alan said.
His predecessor, Daniel Andrews, rejected proposals for similar trials.
With the Australian Associated Press.
