The ACT government says it will consider directly funding pill testing, after seven potentially deadly drugs were detected at Sunday's Groovin the Moo music festival at Exhibition Park.
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Around 234 festivalgoers out of the 24,000-strong crowd took part in the last free drug checking trial in the ACT on the weekend.
Pill Testing Australia's Gino Vumbaca said the feedback from patrons was "overwhelmingly positive".
"Many participants [said] that they would reconsider or take less of the substances they had in their possession," he said.
Of the 171 samples tested, MDMA was the prominent substance identified, with cocaine, ketamine and methamphetamines also detected.
But the consortium also uncovered seven pills containing n-ethylpentylone, which has been linked to mass overdoses overseas.
Mr Vumbaca said that when patrons were alerted to the danger of the substance, they all discarded their pills in the amnesty bin.
Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris said that reaction was "harm minimisation at its core".
"Who knows what effect those seven dangerous substances would have had," Ms Fitzharris said.
But as to whether the ACT government would provide direct funding for the service to go ahead next year, that was "an option we need to consider in the future", Ms Fitzharris said.
"Government funding may be considered, yes, because we fund harm minimisation activities today and every single government of every single political persuasion funds harm minimisation measures in communities," she said.
However, the ACT opposition's legal affairs spokesman Jeremy Hanson said the cost should be borne by festival promoters and the people taking the drugs.
"I don't think government should be in the business of using ratepayers' money to go out and test people's illicit drugs," Mr Hanson said.
He also expressed doubt the service would "keep people out of hospital" as 94 per cent of participants in last year's trial whose drugs tested as a high purity said they would not discard their drugs.
"The reality is MDMA is harmful, it's potentially lethal and what pill testing is potentially doing is potentially encouraging people to take pills that have a very high quantity of MDMA," he said.
"If the message out there is taking an MDMA tablet is safe to do then that's a dangerous message that's being sent."
A spokeswoman for ACT Ambulance said two of the four people hospitalised from the event were treated for drug or alcohol intoxication.
Over half (55 per cent) of the 39 people assessed by paramedics were also being treated for drug or alcohol intoxication. About 140 people were seen by first aiders during the event as well.
ACT Policing said the crowd was "well behaved" however officers seized "multiple drugs including MDMA" during the course of the event.
Two teenagers were arrested and will be referred to an ACT Drug Diversion Program.
Two more people were taken to the ACT watchhouse for intoxication and disorderly behaviour and police also received a report of an alleged sexual assault.
Police also helped security to deal with people trying to jump the fence to enter the festival without a ticket.
- With Andrew Brown
