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returning an accurate scientific analysis
of the substance.
While that delay might seem a
disincentive for festival-goers to use
the service, Caldicott said the wait is
actually equally as important as the test
itself, giving drug experts the chance to
talk to the drug user about their
choices.
‘We bring you into the tent, a
researcher talks to you about your pills
and use, gives you some up-to-date
info on the newer drugs out there and
how to stay safe,’ he said.
‘We tell them the proportions of what’s
in the pill – caffeine and cocaine, or if
it’s poison or bleach or other cutting
agents. It’s a balancing act between
taking long enough to be useful and
being fast enough they don’t lose
interest.’
‘[Users] want to know what’s in their
pills. The transaction and exchange is a
moment of their time to talk about their
choices.’
‘The kids see it as a game to elude the
cops. If I can tell them that this stuff
could hurt your kidneys for the rest of
your life, who is more persuasive? The
cops, or me?’
Will Tregoning, Director of Unharm,
said the waiting period meant experts
could give users information about
drugs – such as a dangerous substance
or pill known to be circulating inside
the festival grounds – that could save a
life.
‘It’s a way of providing a healthy
intervention where people are taking
drugs. With multi-day festivals, with
people camping there, a key part of the
service is broadcasting to other patrons
about what has been found at the
festival, if some dangerous substances
are circulating in that micro-market,’
he told HuffPost Australia.
Many websites exist where drug users
post feedback, reviews and photos of
their pills, warning against bad pills or
advising they did not have bad
reactions to others. Tregoning said drug
users are already purchasing simple
litmus test-style kits on the internet to
check their drugs before taking them,
but said the limited feedback from such
a test was not enough.
‘You can purchase a test kit over the
internet, they’re not illegal, but it’s
essentially 19th century technology. It
has quite significant limitations around
operator error, misinterpreting the
colour, using bad lighting,
contaminating the substance – but more
crucially it doesn’t give you precise
info on the strength or quantity of a
substance,’ he said.
Does it work?
aldicott said research in Australia
and overseas showed that pill
testing does change behaviour of
potential drug users, encouraging users
to make safer choices.
‘When a punter is told their pill
contained something other than they
thought, two-thirds of them do
something other than take that pill.
This is occurring at the point they are
about to consume the pill,’ he said.
C