Advocates are still keen to bring pill testing to Groovin the Moo in Canberra next year, saying their plan to trial testing at Saturday's Spilt Milk festival was "vandalised" by the Liberal Party.
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It comes as new research revealed hospitalisations plummeted at a UK festival which had pill testing available.
ACT health minister Meegan Fitzharris last week said the government was open to discussions with consortium STA-SAFE on bringing a pill testing trial to Groovin the Moo festival in May next year.
Pill testing was set to take place at Saturday's Spilt Milk but organisers pulled out over issue of the event being held on Commonwealth land.
STA-SAFE member and Canberra emergency department doctor David Caldicott accused the Liberal Party of intervening to "vandalise" the project, but said the same issues would not apply to Groovin the Moo which was held on ACT administered land.
He said while there were no active discussions relating to the festival, they were ready to run pill testing at the first opportunity anywhere across the country.
The ACT was the only jurisdiction where the subject was not politically poisonous and was supported by law enforcement .
"We have no intention of waiting for Groovin the Moo, we are looking at alternatives across Australia and the Territory before that," he said.
"But this remains the only jurisdiction that has been bold enough to embrace pill testing."
He ACT Liberals Vicki Dunne and Jeremy Hanson, who oppose pill testing, had refused up to a dozen requests to meet with STA- SAFE and discuss their concerns.
"One of big problems is politicians who know nothing about the field of health making decisions about something they don't want to happen without consultation and doing everything in their power to try to stop it happening," Dr Caldicott said.
"It is clear that our opponents prefer to be ignorant about what is going on."
Dr Caldicott said the fact that Groovin the Moo was an all ages event would change whether a festival was suitable for testing.
"From our perspective the requirement for it to occur at a festival is whether not whether there could be underage people there, but whether or not there are likely to be overdoses at the festival," he said.
"Once people are through the gate with drugs, the only thing we can do is persuade people to do is not to consume drugs.
"People who turn up in possession of a drug have the intention of consuming it whether they are 12 or 112."
Professor Fiona Measham, from the School of Applied Social Sciences at Durham University, offers pill testing at UK festivals through her charity The Loop.
Australian consortium STA-SAFE have based their pill testing trials around Dr Measham's model.
Results from her trial, presented in Melbourne for the first time this month, showed drug related hospitalisations at the Secret Garden Party in the UK last year dropped from 19 to one.
The trial found one in five people did not have the drug they thought, substitutes including anti-malarial tablets, household cleaner, paracetamol and concrete.
For about 90 per cent of people it was the first time they had ever discussed their drug use with a service, with some asking for onward referral to drug services as a result.
Dr Measham said she hoped Canberra, and the rest of Australia, would allow pill testing, and is embarking on a speaking tour of Australia at festivals and health professionals.
She said a string of string of drug-related deaths in the UK helped the trial get over the line with the support of law enforcement and local authorities.
