Permanent drug checking welcome but community services will save more lives
Almost eight years after the summer of 2018-19 where six young people tragically lost their lives to drug overdoses at NSW music festivals, the announcement today that the Minns Government will provide pill testing services at music festivals permanently is welcome but long overdue, Greens MP and drug harm reduction spokesperson Cate Faehrmann said.
“This is a win for all the families who have tragically lost loved ones at NSW music festivals and who never gave up advocating for common sense so that other families would never have to go through what they have,” said Ms Faehrmann.
“I’d particularly like to mention the incredible work of Jen Ross-King, whose daughter and only child Alex died after she took all of her drugs at once at a music festival in 2018 to avoid detection by police with sniffer dogs.
“The evaluation of the 12 month trial released yesterday shows that drug checking works and helps people make safer decisions. My question is why has the government limited this to just 15 music festivals per year?
“Most drug use occurs in settings outside of music festivals so it’s a huge missed opportunity by the government to reduce drug harm by not also committing to community-based drug checking services.
“The latest Annual Overdose Report shows there were 575 unintentional drug overdose deaths in 2024 in NSW with almost all of these occurring outside of festivals. If the government accepts the evidence that drug checking saves lives at music festivals, there’s no logical reason to deny access to the same lifesaving service in the community too.
“We continue to hear horror stories of people consuming common street drugs like cocaine, ketamine, methamphetamine and MDMA and overdosing from unknown, but highly dangerous, contaminants such as nitazenes.
“The government has taken an important step today. Now it needs to follow the evidence and take drug checking into the community where it can reach more people where they’re at and prevent more deaths” said Ms Faehrmann.