Author: Gideon Warhaft
Gino Vumbaca – Convenor
Gino Vumbacais the President of Harm Reduction Australia and was involved in the establishment of Pill Testing Australia, he is also Principal of 3V Consulting Services. Mr Vumbaca has extensive experience in the HIV/ AIDS and drug and alcohol fields both in Australia and internationally. He is a Churchill Fellow, has completed a Social Work…
Steph Tzanetis – Executive Officer
Steph was appointed as Executive Officer for Pill Testing Australia in 2023. Steph is a member of the Pill Testing Australia consortium that worked on the 2018 and 2019 ACT trials and is a Peer Educator working at CanTEST. She has qualifications in health law, humanities, alcohol and other drugs and addictive behaviours. Steph is…
Erica Franklin – Project Officer
Erica is a dedicated advocate for harm reduction with extensive experience in drug education and community outreach. She holds a degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice, and completed an honours thesis focused on the consumption patterns of novel and emerging psychoactive substances. Erica has worked for the NSW Users and Aids Association, National Drug and…
Call to Action: To Support Pill Testing in NSW now!
A Pill Testing Trial Bill is coming up for debate in the Upper House. We need your support to pass the message to NSW Health Minister Ryan Park that we cannot wait for this essential health service.
National Harm Reduction Forum
Forum overview Currently in Australia, there is no regular mechanism to unite and bring those working in and around harm reduction and related sectors together at the national level. The National Harm Reduction Forum 2024 is a free, online event for important conversations on harm reduction and drug policy reform in Australia. This year’s forum will focus…
Drug checkers get a funding boost
The CanTEST Health and Drug Checking Service will continue to be funded until June 2027, as the ACT government extends its funding by $1.8 million. Read more
Pill-testing plan to stop ‘horror’ of teenagers overdosing: Premier
Dr David Caldicott, an emergency department consultant and clinical lead with Pill Testing Australia, said festival-goers often changed their behaviour once they had their drugs tested. Caldicott said the Victorian drug-checking proposal was timely because nitazenes – a new group of dangerous synthetic opioids more potent than fentanyl – had been found in pills tested…
Pill testing is said to slash the number of overdoses
Queensland, Australia, just committed to government-funded testing of illegal drugs. The harm reduction strategy is popular in Western Europe, where lab technicians have set up a tent at music festivals or clubs and run basic tests on party drugs. As The World’s Sarah Birnbaum reports, the idea is to give partiers a chance to reject…
Illegal ketamine use is at a record high, and dangerous chemical cousins are entering the market
The illegal use of ketamine soared in 2023 in Australia. But as ketamine rises in popularity, organised crime groups are importing dangerous chemical copies of the drug. The number of these copies on the market is “an unknown, unknown”. Read more
Canberra pill testing service CanTEST issues red alert after finding synthetic opioid
It’s the first time CanTEST has issued such a notice this year, and only the fourth time since operations began in Civic in mid-2022. “A red alert is something that we issue very rarely,” explained Dr Caldicott. “It is a reflection of how serious we think the impact of drugs like this can be on…