IN the lead up to International Drug Checking Day on Sunday, March 31 Directions Health Services is calling for a permanent drug testing site to be established in the ACT.

Following pill testing at last year’s Groovin’ the Moo festival, which will be available again this year, Directions Health Services CEO Bronwyn
Hendry says it’s time to set up a permanent site.

“Arming people with knowledge about what chemicals and substances a drug contains enables them to make an informed decision about taking it,” she says.

“However, it would be naive to pretend the only time we have to protect our loved ones… is at the occasional music festival.”

She says in Australia, eight and half million people aged 14 and older have taken an illicit drug at some point in their lives. The ACT 2017 Ecstasy Related Drug Reporting System found that two-thirds of people who use ecstasy use it fortnightly or more frequently.

“Any one of us could one day face the unimaginable tragedy of losing a loved one to drug use. Yet we can prevent more families from experiencing this grief,” Ms Hendry says.

She says the ACT GTM Pill Testing Pilot found that less than half of the pills people bought contained relatively pure MDMA and the rest were adulterated with other substances, some of which were dangerous.

“If we are serious about saving lives, then it is time to seriously work towards a wider roll-out of drug testing in the community,” she says.