You’ve probably heard by now that Australia’s first official pill-testing took place in Canberra’s Groovin the Moo festival earlier this year. A total of 128 people came in to use the confidential consultation process, and 85 drugs were tested.

Harm minimisation advocates have hailed the trial a success, and called for it to be expanded to other festivals around Australia.

But it remains deeply controversial, particularly among the nation’s politicians.

Liberal MP Craig Kelly told Hack in May that he was worried about the message pill-testing gave people in the wider community.

“What we may benefit on the one hand, will actually have adverse consequences by giving the encouragement and the green-lights to the greater use of drugs in our society and our community,” he said.

By saying it’s a good batch of drugs, I believe it could result in an increase drugs and a greater rates of deaths and greater harm to our society.

The ACT’s Shadow Attorney-General Jeremy Hanson made similar comments on radio station 2GB.

“The reality is that if you send a message out there to young people… that the drugs that they’re taking are safe I think that’s going to encourage their use and you’re gonna see more people taking drugs,” he said.

“What we’re seeing from evidence overseas, places like the UK where they have pill-testing, what happens is more people take drugs and more people die as a consequence.”

That comment pricked the ears of a RMIT ABC Fact Check researcher. So she did a little digging.

Has pill-testing led to more deaths?

Researcher Claudia Long checked to see if pill-testing did indeed lead to more drug-related deaths in other countries.

There is no evidence that pill-testing results in festival attendees and partygoers taking more drugs and dying as a consequence.

In fact, Claudia found that the opposite could well be true.

“There is evidence to suggest that pill-testing can make some users more likely to dispose of their drugs or take smaller quantities of them.”

“In the UK, two thirds of users said they would not take drugs found to have harmful substances and more than half said test results had affected their consumption choices,” Claudia said.

Though Claudia notes that research on pill-testing is scarce, she found that European experiences have also shot down the idea that testing for substances leads to increased usage of illicit substances.

“A report from Switzerland’s Research Institute for Public Health and Addiction concluded that a drug checking service combined with a consultation session does not, as some would claim, encourage consumption,” Claudia said.

In fact, the institute found no increase in usage of most party drugs over time, she said.

A 2003 German study found a bad test result was likely to make the user think twice about taking the drug, Claudia said.