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The nation’s first permanent drug testing facility has opened in Canberra.
During the six-month experiment, consumers will have access to free drug and pill testing as well as drop-in nurse consultations for general, sexual, and mental health counseling.
According to ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith, the site would assist weeding out harmful substances and offer a venue for harm reduction and counseling to promote a decline in drug use.
‘This Australian-first program will help people who use drugs better understand or avoid unknown and potentially dangerous substances in illicit drugs,’ she said.
‘We know the safest option is not to take drugs and this will always be our advice to the community.
‘However we recognise some people will choose to use drugs and there is a need for initiatives that reduce the harms associated with drug use.’
In collaboration with Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimization and Advocacy, Pill Testing Australia, and Directions Health Services, the CanTEST Health and Drug Checking Service will be managed.
The drug testing procedure can take up to 15 minutes. Each week, the City Community Health Centre clinic at 1 Moore Street will be open to the public on Thursdays from 10 to 1 and on Fridays from 6 to 9 p.m.
In 2018 and 2019, Pill Testing Australia conducted two trials at Canberra’s Groovin’ the Moo festival.
Gino Vumbaca, president of Harm Reduction Australia and Pill Testing Australia, called the trial program a “public health breakthrough.”
‘No-one wants to see young lives lost and no-one wants to see the gut-wrenching grief that families and loved ones go through when this happens,’ he said.
He also demanded that the scheme be implemented nationally.
As the ACT government did in 2018, Prof. Vumbaca noted, “We encourage all governments to take up our standing offer to deliver a festival-based pill testing pilot free of charge to demonstrate the success of our service.”
It happens at the same time that the ACT government is getting ready to decriminalize tiny amounts of illegal substances like cocaine, heroin, and MDMA.
The Labor-Greens administration is supporting a private member’s bill that would allow police to fine anyone found with illegal narcotics instead of sending them through the criminal justice system.
A person could also choose to attend a drug diversion program as opposed to facing the $100 penalty.
It follows the decriminalisation of cannabis for personal use in 2019.