00:00 It's been four years since Australia's last on-site pill testing, which was held at Groove
00:06 and the Moo Festival, also here in Canberra in 2019.
00:10 Since then there's been COVID-19 interruptions of course, but the main issue was that there
00:15 were expensive insurance premiums that actually forced the service to be stopped.
00:20 That hurdle somewhere in the last 24 hours has been overcome, so these festival goers
00:25 will have access to the free and confidential on-site pill testing service today.
00:30 Canberra's fixed testing site, CanTest, has extended its opening hours into the lead-up
00:35 to the festival, and they've been really concerned about the strong doses of MDMA and cocaine
00:40 that they've found, and sometimes up to double the dose that people are expecting.
00:44 The difference with the on-site testing is that while it tells you what's in the drugs,
00:47 it doesn't actually tell you the percentages.
00:50 So while testing is a great step in harm reduction, the festival organisers are still encouraging
00:56 the goers to be cautious.
00:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Comments