Speaker 1: Already and this is the daily This is the daily
Speaker 1: ohs oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome
Speaker 1: to the Daily OS. It's Tuesday, the eleventh of March.
Speaker 1: I'm Billy and I'm a choll. Earlier this month, thousands
Speaker 1: of people attended the two day Yours and Ours Festival
Speaker 1: in Wollongong, New South Wales. The regional festival is of
Speaker 1: significant importance because it's the first to participate in the
Speaker 1: state's first ever pill testing trial. It's obviously not a
Speaker 1: new idea. Pill testing trials have become increasingly common across
Speaker 1: Australia in recent years, with governments allowing pop up clinics
Speaker 1: at schoolies in Queensland and festivals in Victoria. For New
Speaker 1: South Wales, it's an idea that has historically been shut
Speaker 1: down repeatedly. So in today's podcasts our very own Atoll
Speaker 1: got an inside look at how the service was right
Speaker 1: you actually went to the festival and look at exactly
Speaker 1: what goes on in the pill testing trial. Before we
Speaker 1: get to what it was like in the trial, I
Speaker 1: want to understand how we got to this point because,
Speaker 1: like I said, in New South Wales it has historically
Speaker 1: been shut down that's.
Speaker 2: Exactly right, Billy. I mean, drug safety at festivals is
Speaker 2: increasingly becoming a conversation that more people are eager to
Speaker 2: have and there is a reason for that. I mean,
Speaker 2: between twenty one and twenty nineteen, sixty four people died
Speaker 2: because of drug related causes at Australian music festivals. So
Speaker 2: six of those occurred in New South Wales between December
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen and January twenty nineteen. Now more recently, two
Speaker 2: more people died in twenty twenty three, also at festivals
Speaker 2: in New South Wales. The decision to greenlight the twelve
Speaker 2: month pill testing trial comes after a New South Wales
Speaker 2: drug summit held last year. Now. The summit, which was
Speaker 2: one of the New South Wales Labor government's election promise
Speaker 2: aimed at addressing the issues faced by people impacted by
Speaker 2: drugs and alcohol, event brought together a bunch of people.
Speaker 2: This included experts, people with lived experiences, drug user organizations
Speaker 2: and families. It is quite significant because the last time
Speaker 2: New Southweld held a drug summit was in nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 1: Wow, that is so long ago, and so my understanding
Speaker 1: of what this drug summit is was to understand what
Speaker 1: is happening certain trends in the drug space or in
Speaker 1: drug consumption in the state, and then to look at
Speaker 1: how the harm caused by drugs can be minimized exactly.
Speaker 1: And so what came out of this drug summit?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, as mentioned the Drug Summit that happened last year,
Speaker 2: we're still waiting for the final report which is due
Speaker 2: to be handed down next year. But in the interim
Speaker 2: a pill testing trial was recommended by the experts on
Speaker 2: the panel and the New Southwal's government actually agreed to
Speaker 2: take in on this initiative.
Speaker 1: Right, so the drug Summit recommended that there should be
Speaker 1: this pill testing trial in New South Wales. The New
Speaker 1: South Wales government agreed to it, and that is what
Speaker 1: happened two weekends ago now at the Yours and Our
Speaker 1: Festival where they had the first ever pill testing trial.
Speaker 1: I tell you went to it? I did you went
Speaker 1: to it on a Sunday?
Speaker 2: Yep?
Speaker 1: What did it involve?
Speaker 2: So the pill testing trial followed very similar guidelines to
Speaker 2: how other states have run theirs in previous years, so
Speaker 2: meaning at music festivals or at one off events where
Speaker 2: there are likely to be people who are planning to
Speaker 2: use illicit drugs under the trial ten set festivals are
Speaker 2: set up for attendees to have their drugs chemically analyzed,
Speaker 2: and the purpose of this is to identify potentially harmful
Speaker 2: or unexpected ingredients.
Speaker 1: So the idea that when you are taking something that
Speaker 1: is illegal, you don't necessarily know what is inside it,
Speaker 1: and it could be different to what you thought it was,
Speaker 1: and these trials are aimed at detecting exactly that.
Speaker 2: Exactly, so they're being used as a harmonimization service essentially.
Speaker 2: Now the process is confidential, anonymous, and honestly it takes
Speaker 2: about fifteen minutes. So once the drugs are tested, health
Speaker 2: professionals review the results and provide professional advice to people
Speaker 2: who brought the drugs in about what is in their
Speaker 2: drug exactly.
Speaker 1: Okay, And again, you were there, do you want to
Speaker 1: tell us about what your experience at the festival was like,
Speaker 1: specifically in terms of the pill testing, not about I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure, I'm sure the music was great.
Speaker 2: I had a great time to grow on because were
Speaker 2: it what were they? Yeah?
Speaker 1: They actually were Wow? Did you get to hear them
Speaker 1: or was it strictly professional.
Speaker 2: Strictly business? So, yeah, I went to the festival on
Speaker 2: the second day. It was a two day event. Upon arrival,
Speaker 2: the pill testing tent was one of the first ones
Speaker 2: you saw by the entrance. New South Wales health workers
Speaker 2: made their presence really known to attendees. There were there,
Speaker 2: there were signs, There were posters along the strip letting
Speaker 2: people know basically that the service was available. Now. I
Speaker 2: spent time chatting to some of these attendees and the
Speaker 2: general attitude about the tents was pretty positive. Here are
Speaker 2: some examples of what people had to say about it.
Speaker 1: So many people who have had bad drugs just trying
Speaker 1: to have a good time here. All the time, I
Speaker 1: thought that it was everywhere. I didn't know was the
Speaker 1: first one in use at Whales. That's crazy.
Speaker 2: It should just be everywhere. It's like, it's the smarter
Speaker 2: and safer way to do it.
Speaker 1: Really, I think. Yeah, harm minimization is pretty forward thinking.
Speaker 2: It healthy.
Speaker 1: Okay, So it sounds like the crowds were pretty receptive
Speaker 1: to it. Do we know how many people actually used
Speaker 1: the service?
Speaker 2: Yeah. Over the two day festival, more than one hundred
Speaker 2: people visited the tent. Now, out of those one hundred,
Speaker 2: eighty drug samples were tested with MDMA ketamine and cocaine
Speaker 2: being the three most common substances brought in. Health experts
Speaker 2: said that eleven percent of those samples were not what
Speaker 2: people actually thought they had with them.
Speaker 1: Interesting, I know.
Speaker 2: And they said in several cases people actually threw away
Speaker 2: the drugs they brought in after having conversations with those professionals.
Speaker 2: Now for context, these tents also had amnesty boxes where
Speaker 2: you could safely discard your drugs, and occasionally, at these
Speaker 2: festivals where pill testing trials are being run, drug warnings
Speaker 2: can be issued if experts pick up on substances that
Speaker 2: deemed dangerous. But at this festival, New South Wales health
Speaker 2: experts say they did not have to issue any of
Speaker 2: those warnings, nor were there any critical drug related harm
Speaker 2: events reported, So.
Speaker 1: That's probably considered a success, I would presume, right, Yeah, that's.
Speaker 2: Pretty much their ideal outcome for these services, and so.
Speaker 1: Pill testing trials, like we said, it is an initiative
Speaker 1: that a lot of young people are in support of,
Speaker 1: just like the people that you spoke to at the
Speaker 1: festival a Chunnel. But I know, as we mentioned at
Speaker 1: the top of the podcast, that the New South Wales
Speaker 1: government in particular has historically been against this. Do you
Speaker 1: want to kind of take us through that history there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the New South Wales government's track record on
Speaker 2: this subject makes it pretty hard to imagine. Right. Concerns
Speaker 2: about pill testing have been consistently raised across the country,
Speaker 2: and that's including New South Wales, where the previous coalition
Speaker 2: government repeatedly rejected a formal recommendation to run a trial
Speaker 2: like this one. Now, the coalition STAN is rooted in
Speaker 2: the belief that pill testing could give drug users a
Speaker 2: misleading sense of safety when taking illicit drugs.
Speaker 1: Okay, So they're concerned about the idea that if you're
Speaker 1: someone who goes to this pill testing, you give them
Speaker 1: their pill, they say, yes, this is what you thought
Speaker 1: it was, and then you take it. They're worried that
Speaker 1: you're then under this kind of misguided understanding that what
Speaker 1: you took is safe. But obviously, as we know, no
Speaker 1: drugs are safe, and so they're saying that it is
Speaker 1: misleading people into thinking that what they are taking is safe.
Speaker 1: I feel like I've said safe ten times, but you
Speaker 1: get what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: No, that's exactly right. And at the time then Premier
Speaker 2: Dominic Perotoe his message to young people was basically don't
Speaker 2: do drugs because no matter what, there is always a risk.
Speaker 2: But with the change of government, with the new Labor
Speaker 2: government coming in in New South Wales, we've witness quite
Speaker 2: a shift in the state's attitude towards the service. So
Speaker 2: the current New South Wales Premier Chrismin said that the
Speaker 2: move is about saving lives and not encouraging drug.
Speaker 1: I think this is where it gets interesting, because obviously
Speaker 1: drugs are still illegal in New South Wales and in
Speaker 1: every state and territory in Australia drugs are illegal. But
Speaker 1: I can see why some people would say that isn't
Speaker 1: this a contradiction when drugs are illegal and you actually
Speaker 1: have police at the festival monitoring and trying to see
Speaker 1: if there are people there with drugs, and they have
Speaker 1: sniffer dugs I presume. But then in the same space
Speaker 1: you also have a tend where people can go test
Speaker 1: their pills. So how do they kind of navigate that
Speaker 1: contradiction because I can see why for some people it
Speaker 1: would be considered mixed messaging.
Speaker 2: No, absolutely, I mean when I showed up to the
Speaker 2: festival and I saw the pill testing tent set up
Speaker 2: right next to the police tent. It was a little
Speaker 2: striking that juxtaposition.
Speaker 1: But to be clear, if you are in the tent,
Speaker 1: police can't come and get you and say you're doing
Speaker 1: something illegal. They can't come and arrest you, right exactly.
Speaker 2: The pill testing tent is a legal safe space. But
Speaker 2: in the lead up to the festival, you know, the organizers,
Speaker 2: the government, the police all made sure to stress the
Speaker 2: fact that drugs do remain illegal in New South Wales
Speaker 2: and that the law still applied to the rest of
Speaker 2: the venue.
Speaker 1: So to be clear, there were sniffer dogs conducting drug
Speaker 1: searchers and police conducting drug searchers.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, police presence was pretty strong throughout the whole festival.
Speaker 2: On both days. They were officers patrolling and roaming the
Speaker 2: festival site. A mobile police unit had been set up
Speaker 2: right by the entrance, and like you said, those officers
Speaker 2: were using sniffer dogs to conduct drug searchers as people
Speaker 2: lined up to get into the venue. In those drug
Speaker 2: searchers that were conducted at the front of the venue,
Speaker 2: mdermine cannabis were among some of the most popular drugs
Speaker 2: found by police. By the end of day two, police
Speaker 2: charged twenty three people with drug possession.
Speaker 1: I think that's really interesting and something that as there
Speaker 1: are more of these trials across Australia that we'll have
Speaker 1: to see how that goes with the country addiction of
Speaker 1: you know, police arresting people for having drugs and then
Speaker 1: very close to that having a tent where you can
Speaker 1: consume drugs safely. I think it'll be really interesting to
Speaker 1: see what the future of pill testing looks like. No
Speaker 1: doubt you'll have to attend more festivals, all in the
Speaker 1: name of work.
Speaker 2: I guess if I have to be there at chel.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for breaking that down for us
Speaker 1: and for spending your sundays into investigating it for The
Speaker 1: Daily Ohs. Thank you, and thank you so much for
Speaker 1: listening to this episode of The Daily Ods. We'll be
Speaker 1: back again this afternoon with your evening headlines, but until then,
Speaker 1: have a great day.
Speaker 2: My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Aarunda
Speaker 2: Bunje lung Chalcuttin woman from Gadigl Country. The Daily os
Speaker 2: acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of
Speaker 2: the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and
Speaker 2: Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to
Speaker 2: the first peoples of these countries, both past in present.