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Despite vowing to put a stop to pill testing at schoolies this month on the Gold Coast, the new LNP government will allow it to go ahead – just this once, anyway.
The pledge to scrap the mobile service to be set up at the event, along with its fixed-site counterparts and three-strike diversion laws, has been widely panned.
Pill testing is embraced by health and medical experts, legal groups and police, and the Australian Medical Association’s Queensland branch president, Dr Nick Yim, had warned scrapping it would “cost lives”.
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It’s in this context that Premier David Crisafulli, on just his second day in the job last week, said his government would “take some advice” on the matter.
Today, a spokesperson for Health Minister Tim Nicholls said the existing contract for the schoolies service, to take place within weeks, meant only one thing.
“After taking advice so close to the event, the only short-term option is for the Department of Health to honour the contract for this year’s event,” they said in a statement.
“Our position remains that there is no safe way to take drugs and pill testing sends the wrong message.”
Dr Yim’s view? “I also hope to see the decision extended to the permanent pill testing sites implemented by the previous government.”