MediNat Australia

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

What Are the Penalties for ‘Drugged Driving’ in Australia? Joe Wilson - Leafly Mobile drug testing, or MDT, is on the rise in Australia. Police in all states and territories can now require drivers to provide a saliva sample to be tested for cannabis and amphetamines. In the country’s most populous state, New South Wales, authorities boast that by 2017 there will be three times the number of tests on the state’s roads. At the same time, a number of “drugged driving” campaigns have drawn criticism and stoked confusion. To help clarify, this article sets out penalties that accompany a positive roadside drug test in various Australian states. Note that all penalties are for first-time offenses. State of Queensland (QLD) Police in Queensland are able to test drivers for cannabis in conjunction with so-called random breath testing (RBT) or as a standalone test. The presence of any cannabis whatsoever in a sample is an offense, carrying a maximum penalty of

Drug tests made mandatory for parents of at-risk kids, Opposition says policy ignores real issues By Matt Watson   Parents of at-risk children will face mandatory random drug testing under a new policy introduced by the Queensland Government, but the Opposition has said the policy misses the mark. Child Safety Minister Shannon Fentiman said the drug crystal meth, or ice, was putting too many children at risk. She said parents who entered into an intervention with parental agreement (IPA) would be forced to undergo mandatory drug testing. Under the IPAs, parents developed a safety plan with child safety officers, Ms Fentiman said. "This is a zero-tolerance measure that puts the safety of children first and foremost," she said. "If the information suggests there is ice use and the children are unsafe, we will remove the children. "It will be up to the discretion of the child safety officer and it will depend on whether or not there's a his