Government to urgently legalise pill testing before the summer festival season

The New Zealand Government will urgently legalize pill testing before the summer festival season.

Pill testing allows harm reduction organizations to test illicit street drugs at festivals and events so as to tell users what chemical(s) are actually in them, as many illicit street pills that are sold as ecstasy actually contain other substances instead or as well as MDMA, for example bath salts, that increase the risk of psychosis and are far more harmful than MDMA itself is.

Pill testing currently exists in a legal grey area leaving event organizers open to prosecution for allowing a venue for illicit drug use.

The law change that will take place this Tuesday is only temporary so as to cover this summer festival season while a long term solution is sorted out.

Here at MindFuel we applaud the Government for taking a harm reduction approach to the problem of adulterated street-drugs. The irony here is that the need for pill testing only exists because they prohibited MDMA in the first place, resulting in adulterated pills. Why not just legalize MDMA and sort two problems at the same time? Too simple huh.

Sources: Stuff.