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Rabbits Eat Lettuce is the first multi-day festival in Australia to have pill testing. How will it work?
Five thousand partygoers will have the opportunity to get their illicit drugs tested for purity at the iconic “bush doof” Rabbits Eat Lettuce Festival that begins on Thursday on Queensland’s Southern Downs. Pill Testing Australia’s David Caldicott says drug behaviours change depending on how long the party goes for. […]
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Queensland to introduce pill testing at Rabbits Eat Lettuce Festival, where two people died in 2019
Pill Testing Australia executive officer Stephanie Tzanetis said drug checking was “very much something that the community wants”. She said Pill Testing Australia was excited to begin expanding more testing sites across music festivals. […]
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Victoria poll shows majority support for legalising pot
More than half (54 per cent) of 1511 Victorians over 18 who took part in an online survey late last year were in favour of decriminalising cannabis and creating a regulated market for personal adult use. […]
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Coroners plead for a drug testing trial
In January, Ms Allan said she had sought that advice after at least 10 people were taken to hospital following suspected drug use at festivals. “There are no current plans to change the policy setting on drug checking,” she said at the time. Harm Reduction Australia and Pill Testing Australia in November announced they formally offered to host a public…
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Joint Media Release – March 2024
In response to the Australian Crime Intelligence Commission (ACIC)’s recent National Waster Water Drug Monitoring Program 2024 Report, Family Drug Support (FDS), Keep Our City Alive (KOCA) and Harm Reduction Australia (HRA) call on the Premier, the Hon. Jacinta Allan to follow through the Victorian Governments’ 2020 commitment to establish an overdose prevention service in the CBD before further lives…
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Medicinal cannabis advocates call for WA driving law overhaul
A Swinburne University study is the first of its kind to test the driving performance of Australian cannabis users. In it, 40 subjects — all regular medicinal cannabis patients — were assessed for their driving ability using a simulator before and after taking medication. The subjects showed no sign of impairment in speed or their ability to stay on the…
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Fresh calls for pill-testing after suspected drug overdose death at Victorian music festival
The Victorian government is being urged to reassess its stance on pill-testing after the death of a man from a suspected drug overdose at a weekend music festival. The 23-year-old was airlifted in a critical condition to the Alfred hospital in Melbourne from Mafeking near Ararat, in the state’s south-west, in the early hours of Sunday but later died. […]
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Drug survey backs RACGP’s calls for harm reduction
The RACGP is using the latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2022–23 report to reiterate calls that GPs treating people with problematic alcohol and other drug (AOD) use need more support. […]
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NSW Health warns of opioid risk after people took heroin thinking it was cocaine or methamphetamine
The NSW health department has issued a drugs warning after 11 people who believed they were using cocaine or methamphetamine recently experienced an opioid overdose. […]
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Emergency departments report spike in hospital admissions linked to illicit drug GHB or fantasy
Dr Green said that, without drug testing being made available to the public, it was too challenging to find out what was in a drug after a patient had suffered an overdose. […]
