Cop union rubbishes pills test solution

QUEENSLAND’S powerful police union boss has rubbished pill testing, saying it’s “crazy stuff” that will only cost more young people their lives.

Police Union president Ian Leavers has hit out at politicians for sending “mixed messages” to teenagers about drug use and said only more police officers and tougher laws will stamp out Australia’s drug culture at festivals.

“What people and many parents forget is that these drugs are not just one person taking one pill at a festival, the illegal drug trade is built on human misery ….

“As the father of a teenager who is about to be going to these festivals and as a currently serving police officer, I can say that pill testing and any other condoning of this type of illegal drug-taking will only lead to more deaths.

“The only people who’d win will be drug traffickers.”

Pill testing has become a front-and-centre issue for governments again after the death of Brisbane 22-year-old, Joshua Tam, at the Lost Paradise Music Festival in NSW on December 29.

Police suspect he consumed a party drug.

Five people have fatally overdosed at festivals in NSW and Victoria in recent months.

The Palaszczuk Government last week confirmed that it was looking at pill testing after the Australia-first trial at the Groovin the Moo music festival in Canberra last year.

Mr Leavers said pill testing would be a step backwards.

“What we actually need … is that additional funding of police resources need to be allocated by government to arrest drug use,” he said.

Mr Leavers also raised concerns about the legal responsibility when someone overdosed at a festival after their pill had been tested.

Harm Reduction Australia co-founder Gino Vumbaca said pill testing would not stop drug users from dying, but it was “better than doing nothing”.