A Victorian man has overdosed on illegal drugs on the first day of the state’s controversial new pill testing program.
The man in his 20s suffered the overdose late on Saturday afternoon at the Beyond The Valley music festival in Hesse, near Geelong. He was taken by ambulance to Geelong University Hospital at about 5pm in a serious but stable condition.
The man remained in hospital overnight and was discharged the following morning. A hospital spokesman confirmed to The Age that the man had suffered an overdose.
It is not known whether the man had used the anonymous government-sponsored pill testing service, which critics say encourages young people to use illegal substances and makes a mockery of drug laws as police are unable to carry out targeted searches near the sites or on entry to venues.
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Victoria is the third jurisdiction in Australia to introduce the service, and the Beyond The Valley site is the first in an 18-month trial within which the Victorian government and a consortium of three other organisations will provide a mobile drug-testing service at ten different festivals.
The mobile service is staffed with “trained harm reduction peer workers and technical experts” and provide up to 200 tests a day. A fixed-site service is set to be opened in inner Melbourne in mid-2025.
Earlier this year Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt criticised the move and said it would stop police from countering illegal drug use at festivals.
“Pill testing diminishes the illegality of illicit drug-taking in a particular area at a particular time, and that flies directly in the face of long-accepted policing principles, personal responsibility and the law,” he said.
Police also raised concerns that it could lead to events being flooded with drug dealers, resulting in turf wars between rival gangs.
The Victorian trial follows the July 2022 introduction of pill testing in the ACT and the April 2024 launch of the “cheQpoint” service in Queensland.
Internationally, “drug checking” services have been offered since the 1990s and can be found in over 28 countries across Europe and the Americas.
The overdose comes after comments made by Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan about the supposed benefits of drug testing.
Speaking at the announcement of the trial in June, Ms Allan said: “All the evidence says it changes behaviour – and even reduces drug use.”
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She also added that it was a “simple way to save lives”, but the overdose has sparked accusations of failure by Victoria’s Liberal and National opposition, the Herald Sun reported.
Victoria’s shadow minister for mental health, Emma Kealy, said: “Jacinta Allan promised parents their children would be safe at music festivals, and yet on day one of Labor’s pill testing pilot we’re already seeing the Premier fail to deliver on her promise.”
Ms Kealy added that Labor had “botched” the trial and that these errors followed previous failures by the state government in regard to Melbourne’s controversial drug-injecting room which is strongly opposed by local residents in Richmond.
“Labor botched the rollout of the injecting room, now Victorians are seeing the same botched rollout of pill testing, and it’s young Victorians who are paying the price”, Ms Kealy said.
New South Wales is set to introduce a similar program in 2025, and will trial a 12-month pill-testing program at festivals at a cost of over $1 million. NSW Premier Chris Minns announced earlier this month that the purpose of the trial is “to reduce harm and save lives”.
The pill-testing roll-out comes in the wake of a large increase in drug-related harm at music festivals and the suspected overdose death earlier this year of aspiring DJ Antony Maugeri at the Pitch festival near the Grampians in Victoria.
The illicit drug trade in Australia is valued at over $10 billion annually, with Australia now witnessing “record drug consumption” across regional areas and capital cities.
Australians are the second-highest per capita consumers of methamphetamines and the third-highest consumers of cannabis in the world.
Header image: Left: Pill testing in progress (Youth Support and Advocacy Service). Right, the Beyond The Valley festival on the weekend (Instagram).
