First government-backed pill testing clinic finds 40% of ‘cocaine’ contained no coke

Canberra service examined 58 samples in August with nearly a third of potential users discarding drugs once made aware of what they actually contained

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Australia's first government-backed pill and drug testing service has found a majority of samples were tainted with other substances, with nearly a third of people choosing to ditch their drugs after getting them checked.

In its first month of operation, Canberra's fixed-site CanTest health and drug checking clinic examined 58 samples, with 18 people discarding their drugs once the results were in.