The idea of legalizing drugs, at least some of them, has been an issue for most progressive countries for years. Some of them have made steps forward by legalizing cannabis, some are still in the era of darkness, where a joint is as criminally offensive as a syringe with heroin or a gun, while people die from alcoholism daily.
As for Australia, the country has never been in the avant-garde when it came to the question of easing the anti-drug policy.
Meanwhile, the Australian Drug Foundation states, that 10.9% of Australians aged 14 years and over have used ecstasy one or more times in their life1. 2.5% of Australians aged 14 years and over have used ecstasy in the previous 12 months.
That is why the president of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation Dr Alex Wodak and emergency medical specialist Dr David Caldicott, announced that there will be privately funded tests run on some festivals in the country.
And this time, nobody is going to test the kids. They are going to test the drugs.
Meaning that literally, you can buy a gram of coke, take it to the moving lab and as them to tell you what you bought – diaper powder, rat poison or the cleanest stuff from the archives of Pablo Escobar.
But let’s get serious. Though the Deputy Premier and Police Minister Troy Grant recently said: “I absolutely do not (support pill testing). (Be)cause pill testing will not save a life … a pill testing regime may well tell you what’s in that pill but it has no way to tell you whether it will kill you or not.”, the idea of drug testing can save lives. The amount of deaths from drug use is dramatically increasing and people don’t die from taking a pill. They die from taking a bad pill, stuffed with toxic chemicals of various kinds.
Dr Wodak said:”I think Troy Grant’s comments have made it clear that the government has shut the door on the possibility that pill testing could even be trialled,” he said. “Deaths are recurring at an increasing rate. Although it is clear that the current strategy, largely reliant on sniffer dogs, does not work in terms of reducing drug use or harm … there is zero willingness by the police minister to even contemplate options. How can this be?”
He said the trial would need the permission of event organisers and he had his eye on a few well-known festivals in 2016, such as Stereosonic and Splendour In The Grass, which takes place at the end of July.
Great, Dr Wodak, go save some kids’ lives, we support you.
