WOS ‘open’ to pill testing Organisers seek support
ORGANISERS of Central Australia’s Wide Open Space Festival say they are “open” to the idea of pill testing at their 2020 event.
WOS director Rodney Angelo said he understood the risks associated with drug use and abuse, which was a global issue .
“We view issue,” he said.
“We would be open to considering an offer of ‘pill testing’ like that made to BASSINTHEGRASS.
“As event organisers, it is important to us that people are safe.
“So, we are keen to work with whoever can help us keep our community safe.”
Mr Angelo said any decision to trial ‘pill testing’ at its event would require support from health organisations, the NT Government and NT Police.
“It would have to be part of a holistic harm minimisation strategy,” he said.
“As organisers of Wide Open Space Festival we have it as a health worked with first aid and medical personnel to develop systems that create as safe an environment as possible.”
In October last year, the WOS announced it would not host an event this year.
In a statement, organisers said “from the lessons learned over 10 years of delivering the festival the Wide Open Space team have decided to focus their work in 2019 on developing a long-term strategy to maximise and sustain the benefits that the event brings to Central Australia and growing stronger networks”.
Last week, the NT News revealed that Canberra doctor David Caldicott will fly up to Darwin and test pills for revellers at BASSINTHEGRASS free of charge, if the NT Government lets him.
Dr Caldicott’s organisation, Pill Testing Australia, is offering its pilot pill testing program to any Australian jurisdiction keen to take up the offer.
Dr Caldicott has been advocating for pill testing in Australia for nearly 20 years, after watching a young man die from a preventable drug overdose.
He’s convinced pill testing saves lives.
“The great myth about pill testing is just that we’re just telling people what’s in their pills,” Dr Caldicott said.
“The reality is that we know it works very well in stopping people from taking drugs – or at least changes the way they take drugs so that they don’t have to end up in hospital.
“A lot of the time we spend talking to young people is reiterating the message – you don’t want to be hurt by drugs today.”
WOS, a three-day music, arts and desert culture festival will return from May 1 to May 3, 2020.