Drug tests at Immigration a waste of time and money, says expert

Drug tests at Immigration a waste of time and money

Noel Towell 14 January 2015

Reporter for The Canberra Times

The Immigration Department is wasting its time and taxpayers' money on forced drug tests for thousands of public servants, according to a leading workplace drug and alcohol expert.
The tests will be no deterrent, enormously expensive and might even make matters worse by forcing drug users in the department on to harder substances, according to AOD workplace testing's Dr Donna Bull.
But the department says that it is no ordinary workplace and that illicit drug use by government officials represents an unacceptable corruption risk to the nation's border protection system.
Dr Bull, an independent consultant, says up to 5000 public servants would have to be tested each year to give the department a realistic chance of catching bureaucrats who turn up to work high.

But Dr Bull says a mandatory testing regime in the British Army resulted in soldiers switching from cannabis to LSD, which is harder to detect, and similar programs in Australia's mining industry were fuelling a progression from  cannabis to methamphetamine among workers.
Read the full article here

MediNat Response:

 We are a little concerned that the conversation and claims have no supporting evidence!

Dr Bull seems to think that rapid tests do not detect Ice (methamphetamines) We would disagree with Dr Bull on that one, most rapid tests include MET /MAMP methamphetamines, both in saliva and urine tests and test very accurately at Australian Standards cutoffs (laboratory verified).

We have the feeling that we are visiting last century information and research here, unless Dr Bull can verify new statistics.

Examples:

ASDA  (Australian Sports Drug Agency) operated a cost effective, sports specific and flexible drug testing ... No Advance Notice testing is widely recognised as the most effective deterrent Reference

Using the U.S. military's policy of random drug testing and zero tolerance, we find that a strict employer anti-drug program is a highly effective means of deterring illicit drug use among current users as well as potential users, Reference

Drug and alcohol testing

in its various forms can demonstrate a range of useful impacts – quantifying usage; deterring

usage; as a basis for removing substance abusers from safety-sensitive roles; assessing impact on

accidents and incidents; identifying personnel who use these substances; monitoring personnel

on return to duty from rehabilitation programs and contributing to comprehensive, operator-

driven drug and alcohol policies. Reference

There is also a substantial volume of research from 1990's and early 2000-2004 that will dispute the effectiveness of drug testing as a deterent, most sighting papers from the early 90's.
There is a clear need for current research given the huge increase in technology and subsequent accuracy in testing using the latest rapid testing devices.
Drug Testing today is light years ahead of any of the current research, so we suggest new and informed research is undertaken before throwing negaive conotations on the effect by quoting out of date materials to justify it.

Not sure what the motivation for that is?

MediNat Australia supplies some of the most advanced Rapid Tests available in the Australian market today.