Funding for the politically controversial services was cut by the state government earlier this year.<\/p>\n
“We do not tolerate it. We will not allow it and we will legislate or regulate against those private providers.”<\/p>\n
Mr Bleijie said he would ask the private providers not to reopen the clinic, and believed education was key to curbing the use of illicit drugs in the state.<\/p>\n
“It’s really important to make the point: we are better off supporting people through addiction and harm services,” he said.<\/p>\n
“You cannot have a state-sanctioned policy that allows someone to take illegal drugs into a pill testing clinic in Queensland, test their illegal, illicit drugs and then walk away with a packet of still illicit drugs in their pocket.<\/p>\n
Clinics at at Bowen Hills and Burleigh Heads were shut in April after the Crisafulli government declined to renew their funding. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n
“We’re better off making sure that we have education to young people that any form of illicit drugs can kill you at music festivals, at parties, at anything. There is no safe way to take drugs.”<\/p>\n
On Friday, Cameron Francis, who leads the not-for-profit organisation The Loop Australia, announced the CheQpoint clinic at Bowen Hills would reopen thanks to philanthropic funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It would see the site open for four hours each Friday until April 2026, commencing next week.<\/p>\n
He said the government’s efforts to “shut down” the service was “deeply disappointing”.<\/p>\n
“Without access to this service, people will lose their lives. Drug checking prevents deaths,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Stopping this work will only result in unnecessary harm to the community.”<\/p>\n
Ms Mullen says it’s disappointing that the government is pursuing a stance against pill testing. (ABC News: Lucy Loram)<\/p>\n
Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs Charis Mullen said she believed the government was overriding expert opinion.<\/p>\n
“We know that pill testing works, and we know that because we have listened to the experts,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Ms Mullen said.<\/p>\n
“There [were] more deaths from unintentional [drug] overdoses in 2023 than car accidents. We’ve got to do something.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got philanthropists wanting to provide this service, and to have a government saying that they’re going to shut it down I think speaks more to ideology, than it does to facts and science.”<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Queensland Police Service said pill testing clinics help keep the community safe.<\/p>\n
“Police have a role to play in making sure drug checking services are accessible for all members of the community as a health service,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
“Drug checking services do not impact normal policing activity, and both can operate in parallel to keep the community safe.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Queensland government will “do whatever is necessary” to stop a Brisbane-based drug checking facility from operating. It…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":186575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,104594,104593,104587,6808,104589,104592,104590,50,104588,104591,8448],"class_list":{"0":"post-186574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-cameron-francis","10":"tag-charis-mullen","11":"tag-drug-checking","12":"tag-facility","13":"tag-government-response","14":"tag-jarrod-bleijie","15":"tag-legislate","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-pill-testing","18":"tag-regulate","19":"tag-the-loop"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115116229849454537","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}