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...

Good article by Fay Calderone Partner DIBBSBARKER Fast Fact Alcohol and other drugs cost Australian workplaces an estimated $6bn per year in lost productivity. Recent research has estimated that 2.5 million days are lost annually due to alcohol and other drug use. Persons Conducting Business or Undertaking (PCBUs) have an onerous duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and others in their workplace under WHS laws. This includes the provision of a safe work environment, information, instruction, training and supervision in relation to WHS that extends to being under the influence of drugs or alcohol at work. Workers also have an obligation under WHS laws to protect their own health safety and that of others in the workplace. As such, showing up to work under the influence may be a breach by the worker of their WHS obligations as it is of the PCBU that failed to prevent it. It is also considered "serious miscond...

Sellers' addiction to profits driving drugs market Amy Corderoy Health Editor, Sydney Morning Herald, Article published in The Age June 22, 2013 Australians are spending more than $7 billion each year on illicit drugs, according to groundbreaking research from the Bureau of Statistics. Drug experts and campaigners say the data shows attempts to police the ''war on drugs'' are completely dwarfed by the population's demand for the products, with Australians spending about seven times more buying drugs in 2010 than governments spent enforcing drug laws. And the vast majority of the billion-dollar market is going directly into the pockets of drug manufacturers and retailers, with early analysis from the ABS staff research project showing profit margins of more than 80 per cent. The chief executive of drug harm minimization group Anex, John Ryan, said he was staggered to see how big the drug market actually was. "The drug market is clear...