Sydney MP and doctor Kerryn Phelps has thrown her support behind the pill testing debate, calling for a pilot testing program.
As reported by The Sydney Morning Herald, Phelps (an Independent who has recently taken over former PM Malcolm Turnbull's seat of Wentworth) has called for state leaders to introduce a 12-month trial.
"If we are going to gather the evidence that pill-testing saves lives or not, we actually have to do the pilot trial. You only gather the evidence by doing the experiment," said Phelps.
"I have long been of the view that harm minimisation is the way to go. A lot of people in government fantasise that if you just tell people to say 'no', and if you make penalties large enough, that people won't take illicit drugs. But that has never worked. We just need to be smart about this."
"I'm a doctor but also a parent and I look at these many recent deaths and think they are senseless and preventable."
"We just have to stop these young people from dying."
The pill testing debate has once again been ignited following the death of a 22-year-old man after taking an "unknown substance" at Lost Paradise festival in New South Wales on Saturday and a 20-year-old male from a suspected overdose on Tuesday at Beyond The Valley festival in Lardner.
Five punters were hospitalised (four of which are believed to be drug related) at Field Day festival in Sydney on Tuesday, while 155 were arrested on drug-related matters.
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