NOW OPEN! The Victorian Pill Testing service at 95 Brunswick St, Fitzroy.
- Opening hours, and all other features of the service, will be up for continuous review and improvement based on need and feedback (see below for ways to feed in).
- You can come in and get any pills, powders, crystals, gels, or liquids tested on a range of fancy new technology (FTIR and GCMS instruments, as well as reagents and nitazine and fentanyl test strips).
- In the coming weeks, our Paper-Spray Mass Spectrometer (PCMS) will be coming on line to assist further quantification and strength testing. This is the first of its kind in Australia!
- You are covered from prosecution for possession of small amounts of drugs (personal use amounts) inside 95 Brunswick St, Fitzroy. This is the legislated "drug checking place". You aren't covered for trafficable quantities, and it's important to avoid bringing any large amount of drugs into the service. Please spread this important message far and wide throughout the community. We are still working on how best to give clear, simple key messages around this, without going into the weeds of grams and milligrams and different substances. Again, this is a key area for feedback and comms advice from our community!
- Yarra Area Command of Victoria Police, have been instructed by the Chief Commissioner of Police to show "discretion in the vicinity" for possession of small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use, and not to discourage people accessing the drug checking place. Any issues with safely accessing the service should be communicated to service providers and to HRVic specifically.
- Harm Reduction Victoria are employing harm reduction peer workers with living experience of drug use on every shift. 2 peer workers will be available each shift to provide you your drug checking results, who will be working alongside 2 Health and Harm reduction Workers with healthcare training, who are from our partners at The Loop Australia. We will also be employing an Operations Lead for the fixed-site, which is a designated peer leadership role within the service.
- Harm Reduction Victoria will also be setting up a Service User Reference Group in September, to inform service improvement and service evaluation throughout the rest of the trial.
Make sure you're signed up for updates at: www.hrvic.org.au/dcsignupdates
- There are QR codes up at the service that link to an anonymous feedback and complaints form for all service users to access, as well. And we encourage any and all feedback, always! This is just the beginning of drug checking in Victoria, and we need your input.
- We are also working on ways to further include more members of our community in the rest of the trial, and in Harm Reduction Victoria's work preparing for the end of the trial come August 2026. You can email: policy@hrvic.org.au to inquire further about this, ask questions, or share your feedback and ideas. And again, make sure you're signed up for updates at: hrvic.org.au/dcsignupdates
Come and say hey any Thursday, Friday or Saturday arvo, and get your drugs checked Free, legal, and anonymous!
And join in with this exciting new investment into harm reduction in Victoria 🙂