Going into Festival Season in Aus - Yes I'm Looking at You Schoolies 👀

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“A Victorian coroner is again calling for the introduction of pill testing after a man died from an MDMA pill known as the Blue Punisher at a festival last year – the fourth coroner to do so in six years.” - Opening statement from Coroner again pushes for pill testing after ‘Blue Punisher’ death (The Age). 


What is “blue punisher”? 

- high potency MDMA/ecstasy*

- Small blue pill w Disney+ Marvel TV Show Punisher logo (skull) on it



What is pill testing? 

- Centre for VOLUNTARY, CONFIDENTIAL, NOT REPORTABLE pill testing

- Will inform attendee composition of their drug to facilitate better informed decision making

- Education and advice can also be given if desired

Introduced as a drug harm reduction policy

- Currently being trialled in ACT and QSD, no plan to roll out in VIC as of yet 


Why is pill testing endorsed by many? 

- Independent r/v conducted by Dr Anna Olsen on outcomes of pill testing at Canberra’s Groovin the Moo festival in Apr 2019 which “clearly shows pill testing is viable, and under the right circumstances, provides effective, relevant and good health information to people who plan to use illicit drugs." - Dr Olsen

- "The service also provided valuable new information on the drug market at the time, detecting a dangerous substance in circulation as well as finding that a high proportion of the drugs presented for testing were MDMA." - Dr Olsen

- “It is impossible to know whether, had a drug checking service existed, [the man] would have submitted a sample of an MDMA pill for testing before taking it at Karnival,” 

- “Notwithstanding this, a drug-checking service would have at least created the opportunity for him to do so, and for him to receive tailored harm reduction information from the drug-checking facility […]”

“It is likewise impossible to know whether, had [the man] been provided information of this type, he would have changed his drug consumption behaviour; but likewise, in the absence of a drug checking service, this was not a possible outcome.” - Cain (coroner Judge) said in his findings

- It’s about having the CHOICE to get pills tested

- “The final CanTEST evaluation, published in July 2023, found that in many cases the substances submitted for testing contained different drugs than what the attendee expected.” 


Personal thoughts? 

- I endorse it

- People will take drugs and are taking drugs regardless

- Idea of well informed consent in med applies in this situation as well 

- Current measures such as  random spot testing at festivals in VIC have also raised ethical issues 



*Street names for MDMA  (Adam, Beans, Biscuit, Clarity, Disco Biscuit, E, Eve, Go, Hug Drug, Lover’s Speed, MDMA, Peace, STP, X, XTC) 

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