CanTEST will continue providing drug checking and health support services until 2027 with extended funding announced by the ACT Government. Photo: Tracey Nearmy/ANU.
The future of Canberra’s drug checking service is assured for the next three years with funding extended until June 2027.
But don’t expect to access the service beyond its current six hours a week and occasional extended hours during festivals.
The ACT Government has announced an extra $1.8 million to keep the harm minimisation service going in Canberra’s centre.
The service opened its doors in July 2022 for a six-month pilot and has since tested more than 2600 samples.
A range of drugs has been brought into the service for testing, including highly dangerous synthetic opioids, MDMA, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, ketamine and psychedelics.
In many cases the tested substances were not what was expected; more than 10 per cent of samples were voluntarily thrown away by clients following testing.
More than 3600 health and alcohol and drug interventions were also delivered in the service’s first year with some clients receiving multiple interventions in one visit.
Population Health Minister Emma Davidson said this was proof CanTEST was saving lives.
“CanTEST is proven to drive healthier choices across our community … people have a better understanding of what they are using and many being less likely to take the substance if it does not contain what they expected,” she said.
“Testing also provides an opportunity for people to have a destigmatised conversation about their health needs. CanTEST do a fantastic job providing a safe space for people to talk about what’s going on in their lives and refer them to services that may help them.
“I would very much like to see this service funded permanently – it’s doing some really important work in our community and it’s saving lives.”
An evaluation report from last year recommended more opening hours for the site but that hasn’t come to fruition in this budget announcement.
Ms Davidson said it was possible further money could be found over the next three years to open the service’s doors more often.
The report also outlined accessibility was an issue for some clients. But a new location is not on the cards under this funding announcement.
“If we’re looking at additional sites we might want to take that harm reduction approach at in the future, it would be great to see a southside harm reduction and peer support service for people who are using drugs,” Ms Davidson said.
“We should be looking at harm reduction overall, not just in drug testing but in peer support as well.”
The service has also alerted health services and the wider community about drugs of concern circulating in the community, assisting them in learning about and responding to dangerous substances earlier.
Directions Health Services CEO Bronwyn Hendry said this showed just how far reaching such a site could be.
“I think we’ve really demonstrated we’ve made a huge difference in the community. It’s not just the people who actually come in and have those personal conversations, but our social media has a high reach, so other people also benefit from those who come in,” she said.
Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation and Advocacy (CAHMA) executive director Chris Gough said the numbers showed the centre had gained the community’s trust.
“Now we want to work on that, we’ve seen quite a significant diversity of drugs and a lot of them not what people think they are,” he said.
“Knowing we’re going to be here for another three years means we can plan … in terms of training our staff, we make sure we have drug and alcohol workers, but [it’s] also peer workers.”
CanTEST Health and Drug Checking Service is run by Directions Health Services in partnership with Pill Testing Australia and Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation and Advocacy.
The free and confidential service is located on the ground floor of the City Community Health Centre at 1 Moore Street Civic, and is open every Thursday from 3 pm – 6 pm and Friday from 6 pm – 9 pm.
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