New South Wales will permanently provide drug checking services at music festivals after a trial linked the measure to a decrease in drug-related hospitalisations.
The Minns government will offer the service at up to 15 festivals per year, beginning in October. Health Minister Ryan Park said the program was not a silver bullet but would ultimately save lives.
"There will always be risks involved when consuming these substances, and this initiative does not endorse drug use," Mr Park said. "Drug checking at music festivals can reduce harms associated with drug use."
The trial, recommended by the drug summit in December 2024, ran for one year from March 2025. NSW Health carried out testing at 12 festivals, with more than 1,800 people visiting the service and almost 1,500 samples analysed.
An evaluation by the University of Sydney found the drug checking service was associated with reduced rates of drug-related hospital presentations. There were 2.3 hospital presentations per festival day during the trial, compared to an average of 3.6 over the previous two years — a decline of roughly 36 per cent.
Several festivals — including Hyperdome, Yours and Owls, Laneway and Mighty Hoopla — recorded zero drug-related presentations during the trial.
"There is a clear reduction in intubating numbers … I can tell you I've certainly noticed a distinct drop in serious presentations," a healthcare worker told researchers. A festival promoter added: "If you look at our statistics of how many people end up in hospital on the nights of our events, the two events we had drug checking was significantly lower than previous events."
The trial found an unexpected substance in 8.1 per cent of drugs handed over for testing. In such cases, 30 per cent of users said they would throw out the sample, 37.5 per cent said they would use less, and 7.5 per cent said they would not use the substance.
MDMA was most common, detected in 64.3 per cent of samples, while ketamine was found in 19.9 per cent of drugs and cocaine in 8.1 per cent. Of MDMA tablets and capsules tested, 4.4 per cent were found to contain a high dose.
Bereaved mother Jennie Ross-King welcomed the announcement. Her daughter died from a drug overdose at a festival in 2019.