A pill testing trial has proven successful at a Queensland festival after clinicians discovered a new ‘Canberra Ketamine’ drug that had been sold as MDMA, and become increasingly popular at Australian festivals.
Queensland’s multi-day Rabbits Eat Lettuce Festival drew crowds of five thousand people over the Easter long weekend, and was host to the state’s first free, confidential and voluntary pill testing service, after two attendees died of a suspected overdose at the festival in 2019.
The hub was led by a team of Canberra-based analytical chemists, responsible for checking if drugs were cut with dangerous chemicals or synthetic opioids.
Pill Testing Australia clinical lead, Dr. David Caldicott, said while it was hard to know if the clinic saved lives this year it did point to a “lack of a need” for paramedics at the festival and told NCA Newswire “if the aim of the game is to have safer festivals it seems pretty obvious that this is something that should be rolled out more widely.”
Data released by Queensland Health on Wednesday showed that 257 festivalgoers, or 10% of the overall attendees, had their drugs tested at the clinic. Of the 210 substances tested, some contained no drug content. Those that did were found to be MDMA and ketamine. Fourteen drugs were disposed of.
Many of the drugs that were sold as MDMA were proven to be dimethylpentylone or “Canberra ketamine”.
“[Dimethylpentylone] is one of those drugs that people might think that they’ve got MDMA, and redose and redose making it potentially considerably more hazardous,” Caldicott told Guardian Australia.
“The subjective effects of people consuming them can be quite different.”
Festival organiser Eric Lamir said the service is a “no-brainer” to offer at music festivals in light of the deaths that occurred five years prior. While the festival organisers don’t condone drug consumption, Lamir said he knows people will experiment and “just want to ensure people do not make bad decisions”.
Data from the testing clinic was shared with the team on-site to track “hour-to-hour” what substances were circulating at the event.
“We can get warnings out if a patron brings a pill in that’s found to have PMA (Paramethoxyamphetamine) in it for example, we can use our public address systems to put out a warning,” he told the ABC.
Caldicott said many patrons didn’t have drugs, but visited the testing clinic to talk to the team of chemists about drug use.
Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said the service focused mainly on harm reduction, with aims to combat the alarming number of drug-related deaths at festivals in Australia.
“The drug checking service provided health advice and harm reduction information to hundreds of festivalgoers this weekend, meaning that those who did decide to take drugs did so in a more informed way.”
A fixed-site pill-testing service will open in Bowen Hill in Brisbane later this month, with the state government hoping for a second fixed-site to open once the location is secured.
_Adele is the Junior Writer & Producer for VICE AU/NZ. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter here.
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