Another summer festival season, another young death, and another year of pushing for our leaders to allow pill testing at festivals.
Testing at festivals and other music events has suddenly become a bipartisan issue in NSW with Labour Leader Michael Daley saying it will be “considered” by his party if they win the next election.
NSW Labour Leader Michael Daley says “pill testing should not be off the table” and “we’ll listen to the experts” if Labour wins the March 2019 state election.
“We’ll convene a drug summit and we’ll listen to all the experts,” he said.
“If you’re going to say that you’ll listen to the experts, you can’t shut one door to them. So, pill testing should not be off the table.”
This statement of consideration seems promising – in terms of public pressure – in the face of NSW Liberal Leader and Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s consistent refusal to consider pill testing in the state.
Daley’s comment was in response to the death of 22 year-old Josh Tam at Lost Paradise over the weekend.
“I want to hear from parents and children, from the clinicians, the ambos, the people who keep these children safe and we will look at all options,” he said.
In the first Australian pill testing trial in June 2018 at Groovin the Moo, the data showed that in a small test sample of just 85, 50% of pills contained dangerous substances such as lactose or paint), 50% were pure MDMA, and two of the samples were deadly.
You can sign this open letter to Gladys Berejiklian to show you want pill testing taken seriously.
