MediNat Australia

methamphetamine use and addiction in Australia By Nicole Lee Associate Professor at the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction at Flinders University More commonly known by the street names speed, ice or crystal meth, both amphetamine and methamphetamine belong to a group of stimulant drugs called amphetamines. Australia has one of the highest rates of illicit methamphetamine use in the world and the highest use among English-speaking countries. Around 2.5% of Australians over 14 years – around half a million people – have used methamphetamine in the last year. This rate is three- to five-times higher than the USA, Canada (0.5%) or the UK (1%). Illicit use The illegal manufacture of street amphetamines in Australia is almost exclusively methamphetamine. Illicit methamphetamine is manufactured in local “meth labs” and also imported from South-East Asia. The drug usually comes in powder or pills (speed) or cr

Workers dodge positive drugs tests 26 March, 2013 Vicky Validakis Mining Australia The Article (see below for comments) Industry drug testers have raised concerns that workers are managing their illegal drug intake in a bid to escape getting caught out in tests. Kerryanne Tawhai, director of Down to Earth results, a company that tests illegal substances in resource industry workers, expressed concern that workers were managing their drug intake to avoid testing positive to drugs, including amphetamines. The comments come after Queensland Police in Gladstone raided a suspected methamphetamine laboratory in West Gladstone on Friday. "(It) goes with the territory," she said. "You've got large a congregation of people and there's nothing really to do in this town." She said most people know that these type of drugs left the body in a short-time, enabling users to adjust their usage before they go back to work on mine sites.

Australian Standards for Urine and Saliva Drug Tests I thought it was about time to clear this one up, as there is just so much misinformation around the internet about Australian Standards compliance and those organisations that try to create the idea that they are the only company that create an Australian Standards drug test and all others are all making false claims and are somehow in breach of the ACCC Fair Trading Act. Lets get the facts! Australian Standards cut-off levels for Urine tests (copied straight from the Australian Standards): ASNZS 4308-2008 TABLE 1 IMMUNOASSAY SCREENING TEST CUT-OFF LEVELS Class of drug* Cut-off level, μg/L Amphetamine type substances                                 300 Benzodiazepines                                                      200 Cannabis metabolites                                                 50 Cocaine metabolites                                                 300 Opiates                             

Battling Ice Addiction See the Today Tonight article here if you haven't already seen it: http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/latest/article/-/16141654/battling-ice-addiction/ So often we think it is someone else, far removed from our lives, our family our workplace! Reality is quite the opposite as with all drug use, there is someone in your circle (statistically) that is using illicit drugs, or has a problem with drug use in some form, and I am not excluding alcohol from the latter! The article produced by Today Tonight is a well balanced portrayal of the reality of drug use, parental anguish and the recovery process. My issue is with the prevalence of the drug Ice (Methamphetamines) in Australian society. Quote:  Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana says "ice is really what's creating the greatest concerns to us in terms of harm out on the streets in the moment and in the home." He says "ice has been around for a long time

Fake Weed! Did you see this on A Current Affair? http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/02/05/18/27/youth-issues-warning-about-fake-cannabis If not have a look now! People are still getting around the law and damaging lives, families, futures, we always portrayed drug pushers as people hanging around dark alleys, in night clubs and parties pushing their goods, now it is just available at some local stores so we are told, sold as incense but laced with deadly chemicals! The TGA has made the chemicals illegal, States in Australia have legislated against them, but these 'people' still sell it with a small label (in most cases) 'not fit for human consumption' and get a way with it. Ok, I know the end user has a choice, however, as with a lot of drug use particularly amongst the young, there is a lot of pressure to conform, to act like their peers, to belong, or to just experiment or just escape from the pressure, I also know until we as a society deal with these i

'Ice' users likely to suffer psychosis on drug, study finds Date   January 10, 2013 Malcolm Knox    USERS of methamphetamine, or ''ice'', are five times likelier to suffer psychotic symptoms while taking the drug, according to a groundbreaking new Australian study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry (JAMA Psychiatry). The study's lead author, Dr Rebecca McKetin, said that ''there have always been questions about causality from those who say methamphetamine users aren't 'turned mad' by the drug but have a pre-existing psychotic condition. What's unique about this study is that it excludes those users and still finds such a strong link between use and psychotic symptoms in a large cohort over a period of years''. Dr McKetin, formerly of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in Sydney and now at the Australian National University, said she was surprised by the str

Workplace drug testing Australian Drug Foundation November 2012  PolicyTalk provides an overview of topical debates to help senior policy makers find the right solutions for the community on alcohol and other drug issues. No one objects to the breath testing of automobile drivers to ensure their performance is not impaired by high concentrations of alcohol. Similarly, people who are engaged in safety critical work in occupations such as transport, or by the use of heavy machinery, may also expect to undergo drug testing to reduce the risk of harm to themselves and others. Yet in other contexts workplace drug testing is far more controversial. The debate about drug testing employees can involve considerations of individual privacy, the financial cost to employers of testing, the efficacy of testing, and the workforce’s response to testing. This latest edition of PolicyTalk by Donna Bull, consultant to the Australian Defence Force and the Australian and Internationa