Wednesday, 21 February 2024

Bills

Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Pill Testing Pilot for Drug Harm Reduction) Bill 2023

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Aiv Puglielli:

That the bill be now read a second time.

Trung LUU (Western Metropolitan) (17:09): I rise today to speak on the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Pill Testing Pilot for Drug Harm Reduction) Bill 2023. After 10 words into this bill, I would have an issue with this bill. The title itself is misleading and gives a false sense of security. Pill testing is not drug harm reduction, and I will give you a reason why. Pill testing does not actually give you the amount or concentration of the drug. Proper testing requires a lab and 24 hours. Safework Health laboratories, a drug screening agency, outlines that during proper analysis of a pill it would take at least 24 hours for something to be accurately recorded in relation to the concentration of a substance in the pill. It is something that is impossible to do at any festival. Real harm reduction is taking nothing that could harm your body and taking no substance that could affect you adversely. I will give you free advice: do not take drugs. Do not take any substance that harms your physical body or your mental health, and do not take illicit drugs. That is real harm reduction.

I also have an issue in relation to the way members and society go about casually mentioning party drugs and MDMA as if it is something they do every day. It is bad for you and it is not legal, so members and people in society should be expressing concern when these sorts of things are thrown around at leisure.

I also have concern in relation this bill, and I will bring you to clause 4. The bill itself says that the minimum age people can provide pills for testing is 18 years, although this age limit can be amended by the Governor in Council – 18 years – and it can be amended. I take from that that it does not mean that they can increase the age, it means that they are able to decrease the age to allow kids to take drugs and kids to have pill testing. So already this bill is aimed, targeted at our youth and our kids.

It goes further. It provides:

… information about the composition of a substance includes information on whether it includes a poison, controlled substance or drug of dependence and the amount or concentration of any poisons …

What pill testing does is it gives you an indication of what is in there, but it does not give you the exact concentrations. What people do not realise is that when you take pills it is the amount of concentration in the pill that causes overdose to occur – not what is in it but the amount of concentration which causes overdose to occur. If the pill testing does not indicate the concentration, then how do you know it is good and can you certify that it is okay to take it?

Also, Dr Heath mentioned earlier that the adverse effects impact individual people differently. With all these unprescribed medications, whatever drugs and whatever poisons are in there, it is not prescribed. It affects you differently, and that is why you do not take it. If you give someone an indication that it is fine to take it, that is not harm reduction. So that is already my first issue in relation to this bill, the title: ‘pill testing pilot for drug harm reduction’. It is not.

Today I want to address the issue of pill testing and the arguments against its implementation. There is no safe level of drugs that a person can consume. One of the essential elements of good legislation is that it reflects society’s values and Victorians’ stance against drug use. There are two primary arguments that proponents of pill testing often raise, and I believe it is essential to examine these closely.

Before I do go through some of these reasons, I want to repeat something from the secretary of the Police Association Victoria Mr Wayne Gatt, who I have worked with in the past and who is currently representing tens of thousands of members of the police. These are the people who deal with this issue every single day: the aftermath, the tragic outcomes when people take drugs and decide to take unprescribed substances and chemicals just to have a buzz and to feel good – a fix. No more self-indulgence, no more taking something to get a buzz, and all those aftermaths – let me tell you, there is a better way to achieve this. Wayne said, and I am confident that when he said this he represents all the police officers and all the people who have seen the effects of drugs and the devastating outcomes that they have on people’s lives –

The PRESIDENT: I am sorry, Mr Luu, I have to interrupt general business.

Business interrupted pursuant to sessional orders.