Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern looking into allowing festival drug testing

Supporters of legalising on-site drug tests at events say it's "good news" the Prime Minister backs their plan.

Jacinda Ardern revealed on Sunday she wants a plan legalised that would allow for illicit drugs to be tested for harmful substances in an effort to keep concert-goers safe.

She said it is something the government "can move on".

"I do think people appreciate that it's not about changing the legal framework for those individual drugs. It's about saying there's evidence overseas that regimes like that save lives, and who would we be to turn away from that."

It means festival-goers will legally be able to check if substances are laced with anything unexpected.

Know Your Stuff managing director Wendy Allison said it's "definitely good news" this regime could be legalised.

"We have been working towards this for a very long time, and we're aware that the government would've preferred to do it last year but it was blocked by New Zealand First," she said.

It's currently a criminal offence to allow a venue to be used for drug consumption, so any event providing drug testing could be liable for prosecution.

Know Your Stuff currently provides a free service that operates under a legal grey area.

"We tell people what's in their sample and once they know that they can make a better risk assessment of what they're about to do. And people will often decide not to do it once they realise what they're about to take is not what they thought it was going to be," Allison said.

Ardern admitted she's unsure if it will be rolled out in time for this year's festival season.

"That's something that I would have to look at the status of now. We actually did find a work through that enabled some of that to still happen in the last festival season and so I imagine that we would still at least be able to have some form of it."