Studies have pegged Australia
drug users in the world, but some facts about illicit drug use in Australia, like who is using which substances, or how often they use them, may surprise you. At least that’s what a report by Inga Ting for The Sydney Morning Herald is saying.
A report by ABC News reveals that Australians are the top illicit drug users in the world based on the findings of the world’s first comprehensive study on global addictions.
The study, which was conducted by the University of Adelaide, says that in the last 12 months, more Australians have used cannabis, ecstasy and amphetamine-type drugs than any other people on the planet. The report says 10.3 per cent of Australians smoked cannabis at least once, three per cent used ecstasy, and 2.1 per cent used amphetamine-type drugs in the same 12-month period.
When it comes to alcohol use, however, Australia falls behind the United Kingdom and the United States, with only 3.7 per cent of Australians considered to have an alcohol use disorder. According to the report, 12.1 percent of Britons and 7.8 percent of Americans are having alcohol problems.
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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.
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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.