What is Pill Testing?

Pill testing, also known as drug checking or drug safety testing, is the testing of drugs to identify their contents, purity or the presence of harmful or fatal contaminants. There are a range of technologies available for this:

You can use a reagent testing kit, which are currently available, but super limited in what they can tell you. [1]

#BeHeardNotHarmed is advocating for lab-quality machinery that can give detailed information about the contents of drugs.

There are over 30 such pill testing services operating around the world. They are proven to reduce the potential for overdoses, reduce drug related harms, and connect people who use drugs to harm reduction services. [2]

But not in Australia - here it is against the law to even use this machinery for testing drugs!

We can change this policy.

And we’ve already had two successful trials in the A.C.T. [3] We now have two services, Pill Testing Australia and The Loop Australia, ready to be rolled out across the country as soon as they’re allowed.

Through an organised, youth-led campaign, #BeHeardNotHarmed is advocating for lab-quality testing services at events and fixed sites across Australia.

It is possible. Join us and find out how we’re going to do it.



[1] https://theconversation.com/while-law-makers-squabble-over-pill-testing-people-should-test-their-drugs-at-home-

[2] Barratt, M., Kowalski, M., Marier, L., Ritter, A. (2018) Global review of drug checking services operating in 2017, Drug Policy Modelling Program, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, Bulletin 24, 1-12.

[3] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-29/canberra-pill-testing-groovin-the-moo/9708450