Students for Sensible Drug Policy campaign comes as NSW coroner investigates five recent deaths at music festivals

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

State and territory leaders will face a national campaign calling for pill-testing led by young people, the group that might argue it has the most to lose from governments baulking at the idea.

A day after the New South Wales coroner announced it would investigate five recent deaths at music festivals, Students for Sensible Drug Policy Australia will launch the Be Heard Not Harmed campaign at Melbourne’s Revolver nightclub.

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“Young people are going to be the ones to make this change happen,” said Nick Kent, the national director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. “We’re going around in circles with this debate and it’s remarkable to hear people talking about it whilst excluding those who are most affected.”

Campaigners, who have joined forces with the peer-led harm reduction service Dancewize, plan to mobilise young festival-goers as well as student unions, event organisers and other industry groups to build the case for change in the community.

Kent helped lead a campaign for the University of Melbourne’s student union to provide free pill-testing kits to students.

When he received a rare invitation to a NSW parliament session following two deaths at Defqon.1 festival, he was the only person there “to represent young people … who might attend a music festival or whose friends attend a music festival”.

Backed by the federal Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, and high-profile Victorian state MP, Fiona Patten, Kent argues his peers have been locked out of the public debate, despite being best placed to know “what happens on the ground at festivals”.

“The one thing we want to hone in on is it’s not due to some kind of naivety, or hedonism … young people can read evidence,” he said.

Kent cited a 2013 Australian National Council on Drugs poll that showed 82% support among young people for pill-testing. A Guardian-Essential poll on Tuesday also found widespread support for the measure.

A pill-testing trial was held last year at Canberra’s Groovin The Moo Festival, but no other state or territory has indicated support for the measure.

The New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has been under pressure from advocates and a group of crossparty MPs to change her stance, as the state approaches an election in March.

“Pill testing doesn’t deal with the issues of overdoses ... it doesn’t deal with the horrible combination of drugs and alcohol,” she said on Monday.

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The Labor leader, Michael Daley, has said he would convene a drug summit, noting that no measure, including pill-testing, would be off the table.

The Victorian government also ruled out pill-testing again this month, citing police advice, following a suspected drug overdose at a New Year music festival.

Organisers are taking their campaign to Victoria’s upcoming Rainbow Serpent festival, which has backed the campaign, and will hold a rally in Sydney at the weekend.

In a video message released this week, Rainbow Serpent organiser Tim Harvey called on state governments to “untie the hands of promoters and allow us to deliver world’s best practice care for our patrons”.

“We promise, changing your mind costs a lot less than a human life.”