Coroner backs festival pill testing

POLITICAL leaders in NSW are being urged to back medically supervised pilot pill testing trials at music festivals across the state this summer.

Following the inquest into the deaths of six festival patrons who died after consuming illicit substances at events in the state between Dec 2017 and Jan 2019, NSW State Deputy Coroner, Harriet Grahame, recommended in a report that the Department of Premier and Cabinet permit and facilitate trials in an effort to reduce fatalities as a result of festival-goers consuming toxic agents.

Grahame recommended that the State Government should facilitate a NSW Drug Summit to develop evidence-based drug policy focused on harm minimisation, including the introduction of targeted education programs.

She also urged the Government to work in conjunction with NSW Health and NSW Police, to fund the establishment of permanent drug checking facilities similar to the Dutch Drug Information Monitoring System.

In her report, Grahame noted evidence presented to the inquest by Swansea University Medical School Senior Lecturer, Dr Amira Giurgius, that a pharmacist-led pill testing service trial in the UK had yielded positive results.

“We were able to convince a few not to use the sample at all, and not to buy from the dealer, this dealer at all,” Dr Giurgius told the inquest.

“I think that it was very, very positive, and if we would have continued we could have had more people come in to us.”