Calls for permanent Canberra drug testing service after deadly fentanyl detected for first time

There are calls for Canberra’s only pill testing service to be made permanent and expanded after it detected the deadly opioid fentanyl for the first time.

A brown sample brought to CanTEST for testing on Saturday (28 September) was found to contain a combination of paracetamol, caffeine, heroin, 6-MAM and the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a powerful medicine that can be prescribed by a doctor to combat severe pain. It is up to 50 times more potent than heroin.

Chris Gough, executive director of the Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation & Advocacy (CAHMA), said its discovery outside a prescription setting in the capital is “very worrying”.

“In America, fentanyl is an enormous problem. We have been worried that it will begin to be a trend in Australia,” he said.

“We know that there are lots of substitutions in the drug market, where people are not wanting fentanyl but end up with it. That’s how the American situation unfolded. We are now seeing that here.

“Over the last couple of years, we’ve also seen a lot of [the opioid] Nitazenes turning up in Australia – the risks and impact on people are very similar to fentanyl.”

In the United States, an estimated 74,702 people died from fentanyl overdoses in 2023.

In Australia, the drug can make its way to street drug dealers if sold to a third party by prescriber users, illegally manufactured or smuggled into Australia from overseas.

“We think the majority of these drugs are getting in through mostly small postal orders … there have been a lot of small detections through customs. People would be buying it on a dark website, then they’re packaged and shipping into Australia. It’s impossible to check all the mail that comes in, so some gets through,” Mr Gough said.

“We’re also seeing opioids like Nitazenes showing up in unexpected places, like in cocaine. That can be devastating as the person is expecting cocaine and is opioid naïve, so the risk of overdose is high.”

Mr Gough says CanTEST’s fentanyl discovery shows the trial drug testing facility – which is only funded up until 2027 – should be both expanded and made permanent.

“These services are saving lives. The staff there are working really hard; I think there was something like 36 samples tested in a three-hour period on Friday,” Mr Gough said.

“CanTEST, though, is only open six hours a week, but we are seeing more and more people educated on the need to test their drugs. Potentially, there is a need to expand the opening hours.”

Greens health spokeswoman Emma Davidson, who pushed for CanTEST’s establishment, expressed similar sentiments.

“There’s a significant number of people who take things into CanTEST, find out it’s not what they thought it was and then discard it. So, it’s having a good impact on people’s health,” she said.

“This is why it’s so important that people get their drugs tested at CanTEST and never use alone… this is one the reasons we need a permanent drug testing service in Canberra.”

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 to 6 pm and Friday from 6 pm to 9 pm.