Skip to main content

Must be time to Vent!

I search the internet and papers for the latest news on drug and alcohol use and what do i find, ALMOST NOTHING other than the tragic results of their influence.
Why is it we in Australia are so good at viewing the tragic outcomes, accidents, road toll, workplace incidents etc and yet so poor at really discussing the number of people who are intoxicated at work, driving vehicles or operating machinery, poor at discussing the numbers of youth who are using substances that are putting themselves and others at high risk. Poor at discussing ways to seriously address the problems or putting preventive measures in place.

We have a society of drug users including alcohol, from teens to mature adults.
So what are we going to do about it??

I can find old reports of the decline in MDMA (ecstasy) or surprise surprise the increase in METH (ice) so what can parents do about the concern that their child is using ice?
What about the use of K2 Kronic or Bath Salts, synthetic marihuana, chemical concoctions with unknown side effects. Who tests for these in the workplace?

We sourced a range of the most reliable K2 Kronic and synthetic marihuana available, but I really feel that people think it is a non issue! or just too preoccupied to test for them, particularly in the workplace.
So we are allowing high risk just because it is new or not in the AU standards.

For us drug testing is more about prevention and intervention than some form of punitive response.

The reason we supply reliable and accurate products at a low cost, is so they can be used regularly and reliably.
It is about intervention, to help individuals to stop excessive or harmful use! to intervene in a young persons journey into drugs and the life changing results of their use.

Personally I spent 10 years of my life working with drug users at the other end of the spectrum, crisis centres, rehabs, detox and the journey to recovery.

I may be different from others because the purpose for Medinat not simply a commercial enterprise, it needs to survive but its existence is to HELP!
I am happy to talk to any parent before they use a test on their child, or call ADIS (Alcohol and Drug Information Service) in your State and territory. Sometimes parents have the wrong approach, sometimes they understand the way to test and how to deal with a presumptive positive result, you never know until you ask someone.

Similarly in the workplace, we can be so regulated in the approach we forget the real issue of intervention, help and assistance. I mean do we seriously have to have all the security, chain of custody forms, etc to just have the discussion regarding a positive result?
Sure if there is no response from the candidate over time, but initially surely it is about assisting them to get help and aiding them in that journey!

We want to be part of the journey to help, so don't hesitate to ask.

I am online and available on the website chat all day! or email me at graham@medinat.com.au.

Graham


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

GHB date rape drug is back and pill testing may not help, says ED doctor

GHB the Date Rape Drug Discovered by a Russian chemist in the nineteenth century, used as a general anaesthetic in 1970s Dunedin, picked up by Californian bodybuilders in the 1990s - the drug known as GHB has travelled a long road to its current resurgence in the Australian party scene. On the weekend in Melbourne, more than 20 people were hospitalised after reportedly overdosing at the Electric Parade festival. GHB was blamed - one of the biggest overdoses of the drug since 10 people collapsed outside at a Gold Coast nightclub in 1996. "It's back again," exclaimed Dr David Caldicott, a Canberra-based emergency department doctor who was in Adelaide when GHB hit in the '90s. "I thought we managed to explain to people it was a stupid drug to take. Around Australia there will be emergency doctors everywhere holding their heads in their hands going, 'Oh God!'. "A new generation has started learning the mistakes all over again."

NSW Police overlooked scientific advice about hair sample

NSW Police overlooked scientific advice about hair sample and sacked drug-tested sergeant Eamonn Duff  March 12 2017  A single strand of hair that destroyed the life of a long-serving Sydney police officer has the potential to influence the future of not just the entire NSW Police Force but all workplaces across NSW. Sergeant George Zisopoulos insists he has been wrongly dismissed due to one of his hair follicles which returned a positive drug test reading. But while the state's top cop, Commissioner Andrew Scipione, has determined that, on the "balance of probabilities", the officer knowingly consumed drugs, scientific opinion suggests otherwise. Leading forensic experts have cast doubts over the decision to sack Sergeant Zisopoulos, concluding there is "no evidence" the substances found on his hair were ingested and that the minute readings may have been caused by "external contamination". ergeant Zisopoulos, who is the first NSW

Welfare drug test: the most likely trial sites based on Govt criteria

Wednesday 17 May 2017 11:00am By James Purtill From next January, anyone applying for Newstart or Youth Allowance in one of three as-yet-unnamed areas could be tested for drug use. Not everyone gets tested. Job seekers and students will be profiled to identify the ones most likely to be taking drugs. We don't know what the profiling will be based on, only that it will be "relevant characteristics that indicate a higher risk of substance abuse". That could be anything from age, to income, to gender to school leaving age. But we do know what criteria the government will use to pick the three trial sites: High rates of welfare; High rates of drug use; Available counselling services. That narrows it down a bit. The three trial sites will test 5,000 *new* applicants, so they need to be Centrelink offices with a lot of people walking through the doors. The office with the highest number of payment recipients in December 2016 (the most recent