The Sydney Morning Herald has recently published an account by a woman named Virginia Perkins detailing her lifetime of drug addiction while being employed the whole time, virtually underscoring how much of a problem drug use is in the workforce in general.
The ACT government
00 more to the fight against the ongoing ice epidemic, bringing the funding for its campaign against the drug to $17.2 million next financial year, says Tom McIlroy in a report for The Canberra Times.
According to Health Minister Simon Corbell, the funding boost is meant to help Canberra-based non-government organisations with their drug treatment and support service work.
The Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation and Advocacy will get $115,000 to help launch a pilot program for naloxone overdose management. The Alcohol, Tobacco & Other Drug Association ACT, meanwhile, will receive $115,000 to increase its work capacity. Six other organisations that offer similar drug treatment and support services will get the rest of the funding.
Read the full story here.
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Employers would naturally want their workers to be more productive, work longer, harder, and generally be more successful with their work. But if presented with an opportunity to make all these happen with pharmacological help, would employers bite, at the expense of any workplace drug policy they might have in place?
Compared to a decade or so ago, workplace drug testing is already commonplace these days. Yet the practice remains a touchy issue for many people, with claims of unfair dismissal or any other litigious reason attached to practically every single sacking that involves drugs or alcohol. In most cases, workplace drug testing is often seen by employers as an instrument for terminating employees who fail them. There are camps, however, that believe workplace drug testing should be treated as a health and well-being issue.
Workplace drug tests are now commonly conducted across a number of industries with safety-critical environments. Lately, there has been talk of implementing workplace drug testing programs among all employees of the Australian Public Service. This can prove to be tricky, judging by the opinion given by legal expert John Wilson in an article for The Canberra Times.
This website has been repeatedly stressing that businesses the world over lose billions due to workplace drug and alcohol issues. To see how much businesses closer to home are faring, let’s take a look at an article by Yolanda Redrup for Smart Company that says workplace drug and alcohol issues are costing Australian businesses $6 billion a year in lost productivity.
Ice use has indeed become more common among people who drive vehicles for a living, even those who sit behind the wheel of an ambulance and attend to patients as paramedics. A Tasmanian woman confirmed as much when she admitted to being high on ice while driving an ambulance and basically performing her job as a paramedic, says a report by Airlie Ward for ABC News.
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If your place of business allows smoke breaks in the building, here’s something to think about: a recent study reveals that compared to workers who don’t smoke, employees who sneak out for quick puffs work four less hours every week.
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