Anonymous pill and drug testing at Yours & Owls in NSW first

Friday, 21 February, 2025

Yours & Owls

In a first for NSW, NUAA, the organisation that publishes Users News, will be teaming up with NSW Health to provide a drug checking service at the Yours & Owls festival in Wollongong on the March 1-2 weekend. NUAA will be providing peer support to help festival goers navigate the new service with zero judgment.

This is part of a trial where drug checking will be provided at music festivals to evaluate their utility in reducing overdose, consumption of unintended substances and other drug-related harm. The trial will run for 12 months and will be independently evaluated.

Much of the harm from recreational drug use is caused by illicit drugs being adulterated or replaced with different substances. Another danger is overdose caused by the strength and purity of illicit drugs varying considerably. Getting drugs tested means knowing if there are unexpected ingredients or if it is particularly strong. While the phrase “pill testing” is often used, powders, liquids and crystalline substances can also be tested. However, cannabis, mushrooms and other organic matter cannot be tested.

“When a person enters a festival drug checking area, they will speak to a trained harm reduction worker who will explain the process. They will be required to sign a waiver noting the limitations of testing and that no level of illicit drug consumption is safe,” the NSW Health website explains.

“The person then provides a small sample of the substance to be tested, and an analytical scientist tests the sample. The sample is tested, and after a short time the person has a conversation with the peer worker, and health worker if needed, to discuss the test results, potential dangers and how to reduce their risk and appropriate harm reduction and health services they can access. Amnesty bins will be available for safe disposal of drugs within the drug checking service.”

Police with sniffer dogs will still be at Yours & Owls and other festivals where the drug checking service will operate. However, NSW Police have given guarantees that they will not be in or just outside the drug checking area and will not be doing surveillance of people using the service. In other words, like at any other festival in NSW, there will be a risk of being apprehended by the police if you bring drugs to the festival but using the drug checking service will not increase that risk. Anonymity of service users will be protected.

NUAA is very pleased to be part of the trial and is committed to its success. Through its DanceWize NSW program, NUAA is already in the front line of harm reduction at music festivals. But music festivals are not the only settings where people take drugs and NUAA has long advocated for fixed-site drug checking services, in Sydney and regional towns, as well as testing at festivals. The ACT and Queensland already have fixed site drug checking services as well as festival-based services, while Victoria will open a fixed testing site in mid-2025, having started testing at festivals this summer. And the evidence from these States is that drug checking does reduce harm.

NUAA also advocates for decriminalising the possession and personal use of illicit drugs and ending harmful policing practices such as drug dog operations and strip searching.