A real time prescription monitoring system is on the works in Victoria, with the aim of stopping or at least reducing the number of people who die of prescription drug overdose deaths, says an article by Richard Willingham for The Age.
Lying about drug use at work is bad enough, but using faked drug test results to overturn an unfair dismissal is even worse. That is exactly what a yard truck driver did who had been dismissed by a Melbourne transportation and logistics company.
The case went to the Fair Work Commission where the worker was found out under astonishing circumstances.
Drug addiction is a disease, and a complex one at that. If it weren’t, kicking a drug habit should be fairly easy. That, however, is far from being the case. Drugs alter the brain in more ways than one, and it will take more than good intentions and an iron will to draw those harmful substances out of one’s system. A drug addict needs drug addiction treatment, even more so when that drug addict is employed. We all are aware how workers under the influence of drugs pose a danger to the health and safety of everyone in the workplace, as well as how much they need help to recover from it.
There are a number of different approaches to addiction treatment. One of those approaches can be quite controversial, because it requires the use of other drugs. That’s right: some addiction treatment approaches use drugs—pharmacotherapy, to be exact—to treat a person’s addiction to certain substances. Here are some of those drugs, including some which actually have addictive properties themselves.
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The government of Queensland is set to propose an amendment to the state’s anti-drug laws that will make no distinction between cannabis and harder drugs like heroin as far as penalties for possession and trafficking are concerned, says Katherine Gillespie in a report for Vice.
In a bid to combat drunken violence, a group of Australian doctors is urging the government to increase the legal drinking age in the country, says a News.com.au report.
In Australian society, alcohol is widely used and enjoyed. The alcohol intake of Canberrans, however, seems to be higher than anyone else’s in the nation, if data from the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) is to be believed.
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As nationwide drug testing begins in construction sites, a report by Ryan Keen for the Gold Coast Bulletin reveals that one in five construction workers on the Gold Coast are testing positive for drugs.
One individual athlete caught doping is bad enough. An entire team of under-age athletes failing drug tests is even worse. That’s exactly what happened to a team of teenage Russian ice hockey players in a doping scandal regarded as one of the biggest in the sport.