Page 5454 - Week 14 - Thursday, 30 November 2017
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
be evaluated in terms of their impact on overall drug harm, not in terms of their impact on overall drug use. It is about encouraging people to engage with health providers to get more information and make safer choices.
Pill testing involves a simple on-site test by medical experts. The technology that the Greens have advocated for uses portable laboratory-grade equipment which can provide information about the composition of the pill. The test results can take around 15 to 20 minutes to be processed and in this time there is an opportunity for qualified health experts to engage with users to talk about their drug use.
Once the results are available, the expert can provide that information in an appropriate way. At no point would the expert ever condone drug use or say that the pill is safe. It is simply about giving people more information to allow them to make their own informed decisions. The information collected through the testing can also be provided to health and law enforcement agencies so that they can have a better understanding of what drugs are circulating in the community to better inform their response.
Madam Deputy Speaker, it is clear that young people care deeply about their welfare and safety. A 2013 survey of 2,300 young Australians by the Australian National Council on Drugs found that more than 82 per cent support the introduction of pill testing as a harm reduction initiative. My concern is that in the absence of an endorsed pill testing service, young people are already turning to other sources to get information about what is in their pills.
Reports suggest that sales of personal reagent testing kits have spiked in the lead up to recent festivals. These kits can provide some information, but they are less accurate, they cover a smaller range of substances and by using them we miss an opportunity to get people talking with health services about their drug use.
Laboratory grade pill testing is a better option and we should be using it. While pill testing has not yet been trialled here in Australia, there is a significant body of evidence to show that it reduces consumption of potentially unsafe substances. Users overwhelmingly choose not to consume a drug if they are alerted to any risks related to its strength or contents.
We know that in Europe, where pill testing is commonplace, it can save lives and influence people who use drugs to make safer choices. One example is in Austria, which I have spoken of before, where two-thirds of users who were informed by a government-funded pill testing service of potential toxic harms decided not to consume their drugs and told their friends not to either.
In addition to this, a study in Switzerland found that a pill-testing service is often the first contact with social support systems for many users. Therefore, by offering this service, it is easier to get people to participate in a conversation about informed drug use. The research overwhelmingly shows that, contrary to the claims of opponents, making a pill testing service available does not lead to an increase in drug taking, and that the information offered by these services can instead lead to reduced consumption.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video