Pressure for permanent pill-testing service in Canberra after successful festival trials

Read the full story here

By Tom Lowrey

A shopfront, a discrete corner of a pharmacy, a pop-up site or the back of a van — there are a range of possible options for a permanent pill-testing service in Canberra.

No other state or territory has undertaken a pill-testing trial. Canberra has been the home of two.

Polling conducted for the ACT Government found 70 per cent of those surveyed, across all age groups, supported the idea of pill testing in the CBD on Friday and Saturday nights.

But Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said, while she had been briefed on the proposal, pill-testing at festivals — not in the city — remained the Government’s priority “at the moment”.