Two ‘deadly’ samples found in pill-testing trial at Canberra music festival
Australia’s first pill-testing trial has been hailed as a “tremendous” success by the Australian Capital Territory’s chief health officer, police commissioner, paramedics and drug reform advocates … Two samples were “red-flagged” for their potential lethality … ‘We’ve just taken a big step towards taking back control of the dangerous black market in drugs in order to keep our kids safe,’ Mr Noffs said in a statement. He later tweeted: ‘Two of the samples were deadly. So, harm reduced. We did it.’
The ACT’s chief health officer, Prof Paul Kelly, joined Caldicott, the territory’s chief police officer, Justine Saunders, and Toby Keene, the presiding first aid and ambulance officer at the festival, in hailing the success of the trial at a Canberra press conference on Monday. “It was very much a strong harm minimisation process within the remit of the national drug strategy,” Kelly said, adding that a raft of legal and public health complexities had been overcome to stage it. Keene said medical officers treated 86 people at the festival – three went to hospital – and information from the pill-testers assisted paramedics in their treatment of intoxicated patients. Saunders said police were pleased with how the trial proceeded. “We all understand in terms of addressing the impact of drugs in our community, the solution is not to arrest our way out of it,” she said.
Original Article (The Guardian & Dailymail):
Two ‘deadly’ samples found in pill-testing trial at Canberra music festival & Capsules detected festival pill testing
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