The Queensland Minister for Health and Ambulance Services, The Honourable Yvette D'Ath, announced on Saturday that pill testing for illicit drugs has the green light.

Deputy Coroner’s recommendations following the inquest into the deaths of six patrons at NSW music festivals included actions such as safe pill testing and a permanent drug checking facility – Premier Gladys Berejiklian has rejected most of them.

Sixteen years old, lining up to get into a music festival, separated from friends, taken into a tent and forced to strip.

With many of you coming to the area to enjoy Splendour in the Grass this week, let’s talk about something perhaps your parents, teachers, and preachers have not broached – drugs!

Acting Byron Shire mayor Michael Lyon says if anyone wants the council to call on the NSW government for pill-testing at festivals, all they need do is ask.

Local candidates for the next state election must be willing to break from party lines on the issue of pill testing in the interests of saving the lives of local young people, local youth workers say.

Labor Ballina candidate Asren Pugh says he will push to ensure the option of pill testing at music festivals is included in a ‘drug summit’ to be held if Labor wins the NSW election. But he has stopped short of stating pill testing is – or will become – Labor Party policy.

The state government’s hard-line stance against pill-testing at festivals and ‘propaganda’ over its controversial roadside drug-testing regime has come under attack following the latest police operation in which drivers in Lismore and Murwillumbah were charged after saliva tests.