Key facts
- Drug testing will resume at New South Wales music festivals starting in October.
- The NSW government will not expand pill testing services to the wider community.
- The use of drug detection dogs and searches at festivals will continue.
- A trial found that pill testing led to changes in drug-taking behavior and identified unexpected substances in 8% of samples.
- Health and harm reduction groups advocated for community-based drug checking services.
New South Wales will reintroduce drug testing at music festivals from October, but the state government has rejected calls to expand the service to the wider community. The government will continue to use drug detection dogs and searches at festivals, despite evidence suggesting these practices can lead to riskier drug use and overdoses.
NSW Health will consult with the music festival industry and harm reduction organizations to implement pill testing at up to 15 festivals annually. The government confirmed that drug detection dogs and searches will remain in place, a practice that has been linked to increased overdose risks as individuals may consume all their substances at once to avoid detection. Courts and legal experts have also found that drug detection can justify strip-searches, which have been deemed unlawful.
The decision follows a 12-month trial that concluded in February, during which 1,480 drug samples were tested across 12 NSW music festivals. The free and anonymous service allowed festival-goers to submit substances for testing of purity, potency, and contaminants. An independent evaluation by the University of Sydney found that participants altered their drug-taking behavior after testing, especially when substances differed from expectations. Unexpected substances, including ketamine analogues and heroin, were detected in 8% of samples, while high-dose MDMA was found in 4% of MDMA samples, posing risks of organ failure and death.
The University of Sydney evaluation also highlighted concerns about the conflict between policing activities, such as drug detection dogs, and access to the testing service, which may have deterred potential users. A report from a drug harm reduction summit recommended that NSW cease the use of drug detection dogs and strip-searches at festivals. Dr. Will Tregoning, CEO of Unharm, stated that drug detection dogs contribute to increased overdoses and that strip-searches are traumatic, predominantly affecting young people.
Ahead of the announcement, peak health and harm reduction groups, including the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, and Unharm, urged NSW Premier Chris Minns and Health Minister Ryan Park to extend drug checking services to the community. They pointed to the ACT and Victoria, which have funded community drug checking, noting that 72% of fatal drug overdoses in Australia occurred at home in 2024. However, Minns had previously stated in August that there were no plans to roll out testing to the community.