The pill-testing debate has exposed a faultline in Australian society: from drugs to fertility to drinking after-hours, people (particularly women) aren’t trusted to make decisions about our own bodies. Why won’t our authority figures let us grow up? Asks Anna Spargo-Ryan.
IN THE EARLY NOUGHTIES I went to a festival by the river to ring in the new year. To enhance the experience, I took a blue pill pressed with a dolphin. Twenty minutes later, my brain slid right out of my body and ran off, fractured and angry. My friends left me in the first aid tent with capable but unsympathetic paramedics – I was another reckless teenager taking pills I’d bought from a stranger.
Soon after that night, pill-testing stations started popping up at festivals. They were privately funded and fairly rudimentary, but they gave us more information than any government website had. We knew we couldn’t be certain the pill was safe, but we did get the chance to make a more informed choice and take control of what we did with our own bodies.
The 2019 festival “epidemic” saw the tragic deaths of six young people in Victoria and New South Wales. How might things have been different if they’d been offered another option? In the Netherlands, pill testing is part of a national drug policy. It’s available in countries like France, Belgium, and Spain, and non-profits have been offering the service in the US since 1999. Portugal has decriminalized all illicit drug possession and use, with the result that consumption by adolescents has decreased.
In Australia, policymakers mostly focus on discouraging pill testing, despite calls coming from the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians to allow it. A 2013 report by UNSW’s Professor Alison Ritter found that only 2.1 percent of the 2009–10 drugs budget was devoted to harm reduction (helping people to make informed decisions), while around 65 percent went to law enforcement.
Denne historien er fra May 2019-utgaven av ELLE Australia.
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Denne historien er fra May 2019-utgaven av ELLE Australia.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Books: Shelf-Care
Find a little respite in this season’s most exciting new reads
Men's Rites
Deciding to go through a gender transition isn’t easy for anyone. But the hardest person for journalist Daniel Mallory ortberg to convince was himself
Kick Start
In these uncertain times, louis vuitton’s artistic director nicolas ghesquière is looking to the past to help make sense of the future
Music: Everything Is Illuminated
Phoebe Bridgers is a musician who revels in the darkness, albeit having earned her place in the spotlight
SUPER NATURE ESCAPISM WILDERNESS BREATHING INFRESH AIR BATHING IN SUNSHINE
IN THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY AND NEW HORIZONS, MODEL GEORGIA FOWLER HEADS FOR THE GREAT OUTDOORS
THE big CLEANSE
WE’VE PURGED OUR KITCHEN CABINETS OF SUGAR AND CULLED THE CLOTHES THAT DON’T SPARK JOY, BUT WE MAY HAVE ARRIVED AT THE MOST BENEFICIAL (AND EASIEST) CLEANSE OF ALL
TALKING to strangers
SINCE THE EARLY 1900S, AN AGONY AUNT HAS BEEN A WILLING EAR. BUT AT A TIME OF DMS AND ASKME-ANYTHINGS, SEEKING ADVICE FROM SOMEONE YOU DON’T KNOW HAS BECOME RISKY BUSINESS
singled OUT
WE’VE ENTERED AN ERA OF MYRIAD RELATIONSHIP STATUSES – COUPLED, FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, OPEN, POLYGAMOUS, THREE-DIGITALDATES-IN-BUT UNSURE-WHERE-THIS-IS-GOING. But is flying solo the last taboo?
GYPSY CREEK
INTERIOR DESIGNER LOUELLA BOÌTELGILL TAKES US INSIDE HER QUIRKY BYRON BAY HINTERLAND CREATION, WHICH OVERFLOWS WITH A BEACHY, HAPPY VIBE
DRIVE: DESIGN in motion
HOW THE HOTTEST INTERIOR TRENDS COULD DEFINE WHAT YOUR NEXT CAR LOOKS LIKE
