CanTEST drug checking, legal cannabis… Canberra has it good.
In the ACT, you can legally possess up to 50g of dried cannabis or 150g of fresh cannabis. You can also stroll down to the community health center and ask a chemist to analyse Hunter S. Thompson’s entire galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers and laughers. You can’t help but wonder if the politicians have something to do with it…
Drug checking, AKA, pill testing, is an important harm reduction resource that allows the contents of a substance to be analysed before consumption. Drug checking can help people avoid consuming harmful, mislabelled substances and reduce overdose by analysing potency.
Drug checking isn’t only important because of the chemistry tests and checks, it’s also important because it provides an opportunity for consumers to discuss their drug use with an expert. This makes drug checking an important means of providing drug education and referring consumers to other harm reduction services.
Australia has only ever had three government sanctioned drug checking facilities. Two were temporary sites, set up as part of the Groovin’ the Moo music festival. One more permanent site, CanTEST, has been set up in the city of Canberra. People have been testing their drugs there for free for now over six month. CanTEST has since put out a number of media alerts concerning mislabelled substances found to contain potentially dangerous contaminants. This special service is making drug use much safer and more enjoyable for thousands of people.
Last year, Associate Professor Malcolm McLeod, one of the key players behind CanTEST, joined EGA for an episode of our Microdose Webcast. We’re proud to announce that we’ve just released Malcolm’s presentation on our YouTube channel, EntheoTV, direct to the public.
Professor McLeod tells us about his journey in developing more about providing this type of special service, having travelled to test drugs in different countries all over the world. Mal recently tested drugs at Boom festival alongside Kosmicare and Energy Control in Portugal, the Drugs Information Monitoring System (DIMS), a group of fixed site drug testing services operating in the Netherlands, and Checkit, a mail-based drug testing service operating in Austria.
