ACT health minister Meegan Fitzharris says the government will make a decision on a pill testing trial by Spilt Milk in November, after 1000 people have signed a petition backing it.
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In her strongest indication yet that the government would support such a trial, Ms Fitzharris said a working group set up to examine the proposal had found considerable evidence of its effectiveness in reducing drug harm around the world.
"The evidence is quite clear it does reduce harm," Ms Fitzharris said.
Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury on Thursday tabled the petition calling for a pill testing trial at the music festival on November 25.
"We've got a group of health experts who are willing to run a trial free of charge to the government, they know they have the skills and the expertise, we have an event coming up which is an ideal target audience, it's time to get on with this here in Canberra," Mr Rattenbury said.
Ms Fitzharris said a proposal was brought forward by a consortium of health experts to pill test in Canberra earlier in the year had been further "developed", since it was rejected by the government for not being fulsome enough.
However the Canberra Liberals indicated they would continue to oppose the push.
"All it will do is encourage drug use, it will encourage the drug dealers to peddle their ice, meth and whatever else they want to distribute," legal affairs spokesman Jeremy Hanson said.
He accused the Greens of wanting to support drug dealers.
"We need to send a clear message. Go to a festival, have a great time. You don't need to take drugs because no matter how much testing you do they're still dangerous," Mr Hanson said.
"Prohibition's not perfect but it's far better than the model that the Greens are pushing which is to say let's 'liberalise drugs, let's test drugs, let's support the drug dealers so that they can peddle more drugs to young people'. That's their message."
However Ms Fitzharris accused the Liberals' of having a "kneejerk, political reaction" to the idea.
"I think the Liberals don't have a clear focus on harm minimisation and they haven't seen all the evidence that's been developed and they haven't had the conversations they need to have to have an informed opinion about that," Ms Fitzharris said.
