NSW to resume festival pill testing from October but rules out community rollout
New South Wales will restart free, anonymous drug testing at up to 15 music festivals a year from October, but has rejected calls from health groups to extend it to the wider community. Sniffer dogs and searches will remain in use.
The New South Wales government announced on Wednesday that its health department will consult with the festival industry and harm reduction groups to resume pill testing at up to 15 music festivals annually, starting in October. At the same time, officials confirmed there will be no change to the use of sniffer dogs, despite evidence that their presence encourages festival-goers to consume drugs quickly to avoid detection, and that dog detections have been used by police to justify strip-searches that courts have found unlawful.
The move follows a 12-month pill testing trial that ended in February, during which 1,480 drug samples were tested across 12 NSW festivals. The service allowed attendees to anonymously hand over a small sample of a substance they intended to use for free testing of its purity, potency and contaminants.
What the trial found
An independent evaluation by the University of Sydney, released the same day, found that people changed their drug-taking behaviour after testing, especially when results differed from expectations. Unexpected substances turned up in 8% of samples, and high-dose MDMA was found in 4% of MDMA samples where dosage could be calculated — a level that raises the risk of organ failure and death, particularly in hot conditions or when mixed with other substances. Testing also detected unexpected substances such as ketamine analogues and heroin.
The evaluation's survey of attendees found that the presence of policing activity, including sniffer dogs, near testing sites was a recurring concern that may have discouraged some people from using the service. A 2025 report from a national summit on drug-related harm had recommended NSW consider scrapping detection dogs and strip-searches at festivals.
Before the announcement, health and harm reduction organisations including Unharm and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners had written to NSW premier Chris Minns and health minister Ryan Park urging community-based drug checking, noting that 72% of fatal overdoses in Australia in 2024 occurred at home. Minns told budget estimates in August that there were no plans to extend testing beyond festivals.
