The Australian Medical Association’s Queensland branch has thrown its weight behind calls for pill testing to be used at all music festivals, after six people died from drug-related causes over the summer.

AMAQ President Dr Dilip Dhupelia said it made medical sense to use pill testing at events where drugs were being used by young people.

“AMA Queensland supports a controlled, holistic approach to minimising harm and stopping deaths amongst young and unsuspecting drug users,” Dr Dhupelia said.

“This could include robust medically-supervised pill testing trials where the latest lab testing technology is used and the results are compared with international evidence.

AMAQ Councillor and Addiction Medicine Specialist Dr Jim Finn said governments needed to invest money in improving the current pill testing which was available, to ensure it was as effective as possible.

“While pill testing can provide important information about which drugs are in a pill, it cannot tell an individual how a drug will affect them,” Dr Finn said.

“This may vary based on individual differences, gender, age, weight, other substances consumed and the dose taken.”

Several people have died after taking drugs at festivals in New South Wales and Victoria across the summer, including 22-year-old Brisbane rugby player Josh Tam, who was the victim of a suspected deadly pill at Sydney's Lost Paradise music festival.

Liberal National Party MP Christian Rowan, a former AMAQ president himself, has previously broken ranks with his party’s position to call for the introduction of pill testing.

Queensland Greens MP Michael Berkman has gone further, calling for pill testing as well as the decriminalisation of marijuana and funding for drug treatment measures including injecting rooms and methadone programs.

Health Minister Steven Miles responded to questions from Mr Berkman in state parliament last month saying he was open to the idea of pill testing but there needed to be a national approach.

“Our preference would be for there to be a nationally consistent outcome for festivalgoers who travel to other states and festivals which travel to other states,” Mr Miles said.

“Even if it is determined that pill testing is part of the solution, it is only part of the solution.

“There is a wide range of measures that can and should be considered to keep festivalgoers, our children, safe when they go to festivals.”

Mr Miles pointed to the trial of pill testing at the ACT’s Groovin the Moo festival last year, which is due to be repeated in April this year, as a good start.

Following the second trial in April the festival organisers and medical professionals involved are due to present their findings to the COAG Health Council.