Given the demographic of her audience, Lily Wheeler was nervous to present her speech on such a controversial debate - pill testing.
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"I'm not too sure how well my speech will go down," the Batemans Bay High School student said.
The Moruya Lions Youth of the Year public speaking event was held on Tuesday, February 19.
"When it comes down to it, the only real question is - what is right for the people? Should pills be tested at festivals?," Lily said.
Four students of schools in the region were interviewed by a panel of judges before presenting a five-minute prepared speech and two-minute impromptu speech.
Lily clarified the recent history of the pill testing debate which has caused a stir across the nation. She expressed both sides of the argument and made references to politicians' views.
I can understand where Gladys is coming from if we had effective policies in place and were seeing results
- Lily Wheeler
"Gladys Berejiklian NSW premier believes pill testing will have the opposite effect, and will increase drug use by giving people a false and potentially fatal sense of security about illicit drugs," Lily said.
"It is her view that is sparking outrage with people attending festivals."
Lily said there is a Facebook event titled "catapulting Gladys Berejiklian out of NSW" which has over 11,000 likes.
"I can understand where Gladys is coming from if we had effective policies in place and were seeing results," she said.
"But no we have tried programs through schools… yet none of these programs have been effective in stopping drug use."
Through research, Lily strongly believes pill testing is effective in reducing drug related deaths at festivals.
Whilst we are told pill testing is giving us a false sense of security, we are able to easily avoid false reassurances by doing the testing
- Lily Wheeler
"At Groovin The Moo in 2018, more than 50 percent of people planning to take drugs at the event chose not to after having their pills tested," she said.
"This proves to us by implementing pill testing we can reduce the use of illicit substances to less than one in six opposed to double that without testing."
"Only two of those pills came back as lethal, but that was two lives saved," Lily said.
Lily mentioned the positives of trialing pill testing in Australia and mentioned how effective the method has proved to be at festivals.
Although the use of illicit substances at festivals is a problem for much of the youth today, it was also the case for generations before us
- Lily Wheeler
"I think we need to keep in mind the people who have their pills tested have already purchased the drug and plan to take them regardless.
"Whilst we are told pill testing is creating a false sense of security, we are able to easily avoid false reassurances by doing the testing," she said.
Listen to Lily's speech in the video above.
READ MORE: Stephanie Lunn Moruya Lions of the Year 2019