Author: Gideon Warhaft

Click here to sign up for Australia’s first dedicated harm reduction online education course (HRA Online Course Announcement – June 2023).

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has backed calls for drug testing services to save lives at risk. Read more

The new service is now available at community clinics in Wellington and Christchurch five days a week, and four days a week in Dunedin. The clinics are provided by the Needle Exchange Services Trust (NEST) and are the only regular scheduled drug checking service that’s available multiple days of the week. Read more

Canberra’s drug checking site has now tested 1000 substances. The harm reduction service reported a majority of users disposing of their illicit drugs when testing found they contained unexpected and dangerous substances. ABC’s Adam Shirley spoke with Stephanie Stephens, the Director of Service Delivery at Directions Health. Watch video

To visit leading international drug checking services to rapidly improve the analytical chemistry capabilities in Australia (Mal McLeod – lead analyst for Pill Testing Australia). Read more

A NSW minister has broken ranks to urge her Labor government colleagues to “join the nationwide movement” toward pill testing at music festivals, while also suggesting controversial policing tactics such as strip searches and drug-detection dogs should be part of the promised drug summit. Read more

Pill testing will not be available onsite at this year’s Groovin the Moo festival in Canberra after exorbitant insurance premiums meant the service was too costly to offer, but CanTEST is expanding its services on the festival weekend. Read more

The Groovin the Moo music festival in Canberra will again be without pill-testing after prohibitively expensive insurance premiums forced the service to be scrapped. Read more

The Tasmanian government has again ruled out allowing pill testing, despite expert calls for it to be introduced following organisers at a music festival over the weekend warning patrons in the wake of a fatality at the event. Read the ABC report

Listen to the HRA Interview (audio)