Queensland To Become First Aus State To Ban Pill Testing

The Crisafulli Queensland government has become the first state government to outlaw pill testing, after rushing legislation through parliament late last night (18 September).

• What’s Going On With QLD Pill Testing?

On Thursday, the Queensland LNP government rushed through legal amendments to the Medicines and Poisons Act, officially banning pill testing across the state.

As a result of the amendments, the state’s Health Director-General has lost their ability to “grant or renew” substance authorities if their purpose is pill testing.

In April, two CheQpoint testing sites, one in Brisbane and another on the Gold Coast, shut their doors temporarily after their $1.5 million in state funding wasn’t renewed. The Brisbane clinic was set to reopen this month with the support of private money, but as the ABC reports, Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie threatened to shut the space down.

“If people are proceeding with privately funded pill testing, then the Government will take whatever action is necessary… we do not tolerate it,” Bleijie said in a statement at the time.

The Nightly reports that the pill testing ban arrives simultaneously with the release of a $400,000 University of Queensland inquiry into a year-long pill testing trial that took place in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and major music festivals, including Rabbits Eat Lettuce.

The findings concluded that from 1500 samples taken from 1341 people, only 57% of drugs were what the users thought they were taking. The remainder were tainted with surprise, sometimes deadly substances, such as nitazenes – a kind of synthetic opioid that’s been linked to drug overdoses across the country.

The Loop, an organisation within the Pill Testing for Queensland Alliance, said that making these legislative changes “could put Queensland lives at risk.”

The state’s Opposition Leader, Steven Miles, accused the LNP government of putting ideology above saving lives.

“Outside of the far right of the LNP, just about everyone else agrees that pill testing saves lives, whether that’s the Queensland Police, experts, young people or parents,” Miles said.

Miles added, “Everyone can see how pill testing helps connect people with health professionals and helps make sure that they’re not taking substances that will kill them.

“To block something that can save lives because of an ideological thought is absolutely wrong.”

Under the previous Labor government, pill testing was a priority, with the first-ever state-operated pill testing clinic at the Rabbits Eat Lettuce music festival occurring in March 2024, and it was deemed a success.

They later opened two permanent clinics in Bowen Hills and on the Gold Coast, making Queensland the first state to do so. They also pledged to open another clinic in Surfer’s Paradise for young people attending Schoolies, a plan that was scrapped when the LNP came into power.

The Queensland government’s outlawing of pill testing happens in stark contrast to Victoria’s recent legislation, which legalised mobile pill testing.