A former federal police chief is the latest to call for pill testing in a bid to save lives after more party drug deaths but most state governments are refusing to take part.
A 20-year-old Victorian man died in hospital on Tuesday after a suspected overdose at the weekend's Beyond The Valley festival and a 22-year-old Queenslander died after overdosing at the Lost Paradise Festival north of Sydney.
Another man in his 20s cheated death after overdosing at the Victorian event.
Former AFP commissioner Mick Palmer said "enough is enough" and governments must consider all available evidence, including pill testing, in a bid to save lives because the punitive approach had failed.
"Pill testing is not a silver bullet but it's a proven and positive way to help prevent this kind of tragedy, has majority support from Australians and must be at least trialled on a pilot basis - if it doesn't work then stop it," Mr Palmer said.
He said while young people can easily obtain drugs, they do not know what they are taking.
"It's not good enough for governments to ignore the available evidence when determining strategy and policy," he said.
"We have doctors and drug treatment experts standing by to make live music and festivals safer for our kids with pill testing."
In Victoria six people have been arrested for selling drugs including cocaine and ketamine while three revellers were caught with weapons during the Beyond The Valley festival.
Acting premier Tim Pallas said the government had no plans to change its policy.
"It would create a false sense of security if essentially we were allowing people to access pill testing rather than say 'don't take illicit drugs'," he told reporters.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the government was doing everything it could to make festivals safe but drugs were not safe "under any circumstances".
"Unfortunately we know that pill testing does not deal with overdoses, pill testing does not assist when there's drugs and alcohol mixed, pill testing does not help when one pill, which is lethal to one person and isn't lethal to another," she said.
Five revellers have died at Australian music festivals in about five months.
In Sydney, six people were charged with supplying MDMA, ketamine and other substances at a New Year's Day music festival.
Police on Tuesday arrested 155 people at Field Day in The Domain, among them two men, 19 and 21, and an 18-year-old woman allegedly found with 120 MDMA capsules.
On Wednesday they said five people were taken to hospital from the festival, four for drug-related issues, but the substances were yet to be determined.
West Australia this week ruled out pill testing. In Queensland the health minister is considering the results of a trial in Canberra before making a call.
In Tasmania, where the Falls Festival is hosted between Christmas and New Year, the Liberal government has previously labelled pill testing "quality assurance for illicit and unlawful drug pushers".
Australian Associated Press
