Being Tested for Drugs at Work?

[Matanuska Thunder]

Expert doubts value of work drug tests

From:

http://www.heraldsun...f-1226519222508

 

 

The deputy director of the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA) at Flinders University, Ken Pidd, says drug-testing in the workplace is just an easy "tick-a-box" response to the problem.

 

Dr Pidd is to present his finding on Monday at the 2012 Conference of the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs (APSAD) in Melbourne.

 

"Certainly there is very little rigorous research on the effectiveness of workplace drug testing and within that not much support for testing," Dr Pidd said.

 

"As a stand-alone strategy, workplace drug testing is an easy tick-a-box response and an ill-informed reaction to the problem of drug-impaired workers putting themselves and their colleagues at risk of accidents and injuries."

 

Dr Pidd said employees who take drugs could simply change their patterns of consumption and the types of substances they consumed.

 

He believes workplace testing may be contributing to the increase in synthetic drug use such as Jack3d and Kronic, and pharmaceutical drug misuse.

 

Western Australia, where many mining-related companies had adopted urine testing, had the highest national rate of amphetamine use.

 

Dr Pidd said some employers wrongly believed that drug testing was required to meet their workplace health and safety obligations.

 

"What they do need are high-quality education and training programs which help develop a workplace culture conducive to health and safety," he said.

Edited November 19, 2012 by Matanuska Thunder

[Matanuska Thunder]

I haven't been tested for decades, I failed miserably once (not a shock) and passed once (was not smoking at the time).

 

The job I lost because of the positive cannabis result, I had just received employee of the month and a nice promotion, then the company brought in mandatory testing, I did not even try to hide it...

At this point in life, I would not work for any company that tests its employees.

 

and this article, reinforces my stance on testing...