January 17, 2019 www.abc.net.au Australia is in the middle of another national debate about pill testing, after the deaths of five young people at music festivals in recent months. Medical experts and festival organisers have urged government leaders across the country to reconsider their opposition to pill testing and allow drug testing services to operate at music festivals. So far,…
May 2017 www.beat.com.au Whether it’s available at festivals or not, there are easy ways you can test your pills yourself. The topic of pill testing is like a venus flytrap, devouring us more and more every time someone falls sick at a music festival, overdoses, or is apprehended for possession. It’s a hurricane that doesn’t look likely to abate…
April 6, 2017 www.vice.com For advice on how to get the most accurate results we asked a scientist, a dealer, and a partygoer. I remember once, when I was around 19, a friend bought some MDMA off a French backpacker in the smoking area of a Melbourne club. She was pretty sure she’d been ripped off. “I actually have no…
March 28, 2017 www.vice.com “Just legalise testing. People will take what they want to take, when they want to take it.” Between lockouts, sniffer dogs, and some of the harshest drug penalties in Australia, Sydney’s party culture has evolved into a pretty weird beast. If you’re a banker, you’re probably going to be fine—even under the prohibition-loving Baird Government, the…
March 28, 2017 www.vice.com “There isn’t really a nightlife in the ‘Gong. It’s a bit dead here. So MDMA makes life a lot more enjoyable.” This article is part of the VICE MDMA Census. See the results for cities all around Australia here. For a glossary of the different chemicals we identified, read this. If you want to have a…
November 2, 2016 www.vice.com Just how garbage is Australian coke, really? To find out we took some purity testers to our nation’s largest party for pretend high rollers. Every year the Melbourne Cup fills Flemington Racecourse with people in suits and giant hats who believe that for one short day they’re high rollers. And like all high rollers, they do…
February 9, 2016 www.vice.com Drug-testing facilities are legal and saving lives overseas, but Australian politicians are determined they stay banned here. We decided to take matters into our own hands. Between November 2014 and December 2015 six people died taking drugs at Australian music festivals. A lot of these weren’t even overdoses. They were just people who took something from…
February 15, 2016 www.news.com.au “ONE pill’s $20 and it’ll last you four hours.” As party drugs continue to claim lives, there’s a simple reason why the deaths won’t deter users. Paramedics care for a woman who collapsed outside the Stereosonic dance festival in Brisbane. Two punters died at Steresonic concerts last year.Source:News Corp Australia SYLVIA Choi was just 25 when…
December 1, 2015 www.abc.net.au “I get phone calls every summer for the past 15 years,” says Johnboy Davidson, who is based in Canberra and runs one of the world’s largest online databases of ecstasy pill reports. “And I’m massively cynical, particularly when I know what’s happened in Europe, where they’ve had testing for 25 years and have lower rates of drug…
Is pill testing a good idea? The relationship between music festivals in this country and drug use seems almost inseparable. In light of the seven young Australians fatally overdosing in the past year, it is hard to imagine that our national war on drugs is working. Among the seven include 26-year-old Sylvia Choi and 19-year-old Stefan Woodward who died within…
