Surprise! Pill testing works.

Australia’s second ever pill testing pilot trial has been hailed as an “overwhelming success” after seven people dumped pills containing potentially deadly substances at Canberra’s Groovin The Moo festival over the weekend.

The results from the trial conducted by Pill Testing Australia were released this morning, and proved (once again) that pill testing can save lives.

According to Pill Testing Australia, 234 people participated in the trial and 171 individual samples were tested. Of those, seven samples tested positive for the potentially deadly substance n-ethylpentylone, and were discarded in the study’s amnesty bin.

The successful trial follows the success of a similar trial at last year’s Groovin The Moo, where two samples were discarded after potentially deadly substances were discovered in them.

#PillTesting Pilot 2.0 – what a success!! Well over 200 used the service, and of the samples tested, 7 were deemed lethal and we’re getting word that all of it was discarded. — Take Control (@TakeControlAU) April 28, 2019

Speaking to Sunrise this morning, pill testing advocate Dr David Caldicott said he was pleased with the results, which indicated that festival-goers desperately want more information on what they’re consuming.

“There was no hesitation for binning the more dangerous products,” he said. “One thing that should be emphasised is that when they were told about the potential hazards, many were shocked. They hadn’t really felt that they had been educated about that they had been educated about that before. They were very prepared to modify their consumption.”

Caldicott also said he was concerned by the high levels of purity in much of the MDMA that was tested.

“The other surprise was the purity of the ecstasy — the number of samples which returned positive results. We had quite a lots of samples which contains nothing last year, that has changed this year,” he said.

Gino Vambuca from Pill Testing Australia told the ABC that the trial worked exactly as pill testing advocates predicted.

“We helped reduce drug-related harm by giving young people access to a medical service they would not have had otherwise,” he said. “The simple truth is that it is time to take practical evidence based steps to make parties and festivals safer for our kids.”

Now it’s time for other states to get on board.