David Caldicott

Associate Professor, on behalf of the STA SAFE Consortium | Canberra (AU)

Lecture:
Establishing Australia’s First Official Drug-Checking Service- 15 years In 15 minutes

Efforts to establish a formal pill-testing service in Australia started with a collaboration between community-based testing groups and hospital doctors in South Australia, in the early 00s. Over a period of 5 years, a methodology was developed that might placate the apprehensions of opponents and address the requirements of consumers. State and federal opposition ensured that this could not be implemented, but did allow the concepts that resulted in WEDINOS to be developed.
In 2012, the ACTINOS project was commenced in the capital of Australia, Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory. This demonstrated the utility of using the emergency department as a sentinel monitoring point, but still precluded a preventative role of pill testing. Through prolonged  negotiations with the Department of Health, and the local police, an approval of concept was obtained, which then required another 2 years of negotiations with politicians and Promoters to establish a viable plan.
Pill testing is now established in Australia and Australian Best Practice Guidelines have been developed.