Following the announcement of an experimental drug testing service in June 2024, the State Government has pushed new legislation through Parliament to officially legalize pill testing in Victoria.

The new law comes after paramedics responded to more drug overdoses during the previous music festival season than in all of last year, and 46 overdose deaths in 2022 involving new synthetic drugs.

Victoria will be the third state in the country to make this move, after the ACT and Queensland, and the first to create dedicated legislation to support pill testing.

The new law does not mean that drugs will be decriminalized outside of testing carried out in the service, but it does mean that people will not break the law by bringing drugs in for testing. According to information released by the State Government, consultations with the police will help establish an arrangement that will not deter people from using the service.

The goal of this trial is ultimately to save lives and change behaviors related to drug use. with plenty of research supporting pill testing as an effective method of achieving this. This will be a trial implementation that is not designed to determine whether the service should exist long term, but rather to test different models with the aim of eventually creating a permanent service.

Victoria is by no means a pioneer in this movement, with 31 drug control programs already operational across the world and enjoying enormous success. The drug testing technology of these services will be able to test most pills, capsules, powders, crystals or liquids and identify harmful chemicals that can cause death.

A mobile pill testing service will be set up for the start of Victoria’s festival season in summer, and will travel to up to ten festivals and music events throughout the trial period. There are also plans to open a fixed testing site in mid-2025 in inner-city Melbourne.

For more information, read this article of the state government.

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