They're looking to fund pill testing resources across Australia.
Last year, Canberra’s Groovin The Moo held the first officially sanctioned Australian pill testing trial and with the 2019 leg of the festival around the corner, Pill Testing Australia have announced a fundraising initiative to raise money to roll out pill testing Australia wide.
While the ethics of providing pill testing at music festivals are the focus of debates around introducing the practice in Australia, the financial considerations of making pill testing a reality are certainly worth exploring. PTA recently launched their ‘Give That They May Know’ campaign with aims to raise $100,000 for equipment that will allow for free pill testing in every state and territory across the country.
“Our goal is to provide pill testing trials at events around Australia,” says Harm Reduction Australia president Gino Vumbaca. “Offering trials at festivals and music events is about testing our ‘medical model’ of pill testing, to conduct interventions and report on outcomes in an Australian context.”
Last year’s trial saw startling results, with punters discovering their pills contained cutting agents ranging from toothpaste to antihistamines while 33% of those who were led to believe their pills contained MDMA found there were no traces of the substance in the pills they’d purchased. PTA will bring pill testing to Groovin The Moo in Canberra this weekend for a second trial as they continue to push for widespread testing.
