ADF figures provided to The Sunday Telegraph revealed 589 serving soldiers, sailors and airmen tested positive to taking illicit drugs since 2005, The Sunday Telegraph reports.

The results were released after news an Australian soldier was found unconscious from a suspected drug overdose in his barracks at Tarin Kowt in Afghanistan.

Private Daniel Landt-Isley remains in a serious condition in a US military hospital in Germany. Investigators found a bottle of pills and white powder – thought to be an opiate – in the soldier’s room.

In November, The Sunday Telegraph revealed Diggers were using marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other hard drugs on tours of duty and were returning to Australia as addicts

The scandal is a major embarrassment for ADF chief Angus Houston, who said drugs the story was “completely baseless”.

Last week, Air Chief Marshal Houston was forced to order all 300 members of Australia’s Special Operations Task Group in Afghanistan to be drug tested.

Afghanistan produces 93 per cent of the world’s heroin, which experts claim can be accessed easily and cheaply.

Regular drug tests were conducted between June, 2005 and April, 2010 on 44,000 ADF personnel, a spokesman said.

The ADF refuses to detail the types of drugs involved in the positive tests or to give any breakdown of how many involved soldiers serving overseas.

Military culture expert Dr Ben Wadham said drug use was a traditional issue for defence force personnel and put the use down to stress and military culture.

“Soldiers traditionally work hard, but they also play hard and that has been characterised by copious amounts of drugs and alcohol,” Dr Wadham said.

“But it’s also the stresses they have to endure in highly risky work situations, which can drive them to take drugs.”

He said drug habits had also changed over time.

“In the 1990s cannabis was the drug of choice but in the second half of the decade, pills, amphetamines and steroids became more prevalent. In the 2000′s it is still largely pills, cocaine and steroids while there has traditionally been problems with opiates in Afghanistan.”

He said heroin came very cheap in Afghanistan.

“They traditionally get it through contact with US soldiers, wandering through opiate regions or through a connection with local sellers who often sell drugs to soldiers to undermine their ability on the battlefield.”

Soldiers told The Sunday Telegraph, on the condition of anonymity, that drug use by serving soldiers was still prevalent.

One soldier, who served in Iraq two years ago, reported that “a big selection” of steroids was available when he spent time on an American base.

“Most guys were on it because there’s so much pressure on you to be at peak physical performance that people turn to steroids just to keep up,” he said.

An ADF spokesman said the drug test result figures compared favourably with that recorded for the civilian community.

The Legislative Assembly last month gave in principle support to a similar bill put forward by the Liberals.

The Greens agreed to hold of debate on the bill until the Government’s proposal was unveiled.

The Government has been reluctant to support roadside drug testing in the past but released a discussion paper on the issue in March.

It has now put forward its own proposal which Chief Minister Jon Stanhope says will allow police to detect illicit drugs using an oral fluid screening test.

“It also gives police the authority to request a driver to undergo a blood test if they have reasonable grounds to believe the driver is affected by a controlled drug that cannot be detected by the oral fluid screening test,” he said.

“People involved in road accidents will also be required to provide a blood sample for testing.”

The bill is now open for public comment and is expected to be tabled in the Assembly in July.

POLICE have praised the behaviour of motorists on the roads during the school holidays after a major traffic operation on the Sunshine Coast on Wednesday night.

Random breath testing.

POLICE have praised the behaviour of motorists on the roads during the school holidays after a major traffic operation on the Sunshine Coast on Wednesday night caught less offenders than similar operations in previous months.

All four lanes of the Bruce Highway near Glenview were closed between 9pm and 2.30am yesterday, with 1600 drivers breath tested.

Officers from the Sunshine Coast district were supported by the State Traffic Task Force, the Roadside Drug Testing Unit and the dog squad to target traffic, drug and property-related offences.

While similar operations have been conducted by police before, this was the first time it was carried out during a holiday period.

A total of 1637 RBTs and 30 roadside drug tests were carried out.

Five drivers were charged with drink-driving offences, the highest recording being 0.159%. Two drivers also returned positive readings for cannabis and amphetamines.

Four people were charged with five dangerous drug offences, one person was issued a notice to appear for unlicensed driving and one person for disqualified driving.

Police also intercepted 70 heavy vehicles and issued 16 traffic infringement notices.

Despite those results, Superintendent Ben Hanbidge said the decrease in the number of offenders compared to non-holiday periods was a positive sign the message was being heeded.

Drugscreen is will be going into the New Zealand Market with its launch of its new site http://www.drugscreen.co.nz/

Tasmania’s transport union supports random drug testing of drivers.

The Transport Workers Union has backed a Tasmanian Coroner’s call for all trucking companies to introduce random drug testing.

Coroner Chris Webster made the recommendation after an inquest into the death of 27-year-old truck driver Timothy Bennett.

Mr Bennett had toxic levels of ecstasy in his system when he lost control of his truck at Mount Arrowsmith on the state’s west coast early last year.

The union’s Leeroy Doble says most of Tasmania’s major transport companies have have drug and alcohol policies in place, and the union backs random drug testing.

“Yes we’re all for it, we’re quite happy to work with companies and set up a drug and alcohol policy but we don’t condone urine sampling for the privacy reasons.”

But he says drug use is not common in the industry.

“This is actually the first time I’ve heard of a driver with that chemical in his system,” he said.

The inquest heard Mr Bennett was not the only occupant of the truck when he crashed. His passenger suffered devastating injuries.

Source – http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/25/2829532.htm

It’s because we’re all becoming more health and safety conscious, according to Tony Graham, who runs a company that conducts workplace drug and alcohol testing.

“Insurance companies are driving some of this, but people are becoming more conscious of workplace health and safety…

“People are starting to take on the fact that a safe workplace obviously has to involve this sort of testing,” he says to 612 ABC Brisbane’s Terri Begley, who was drug tested for this story.

Michael Cope, the president of the Queensland Council of Civil Liberties, agrees that in safety critical areas, drug and alcohol testing is justifiable. However in other industries, the testing is more controversial.

“This comes down to a proposition of whether we ‘work to live’ or ‘live to work’,” says Mr Cope.

“If we accept the proposition that we ‘work to live’, then there are very real restrictions to the right of an employer to investigate people’s private lives.”

Ann Milner, Chair of the Queensland Legal Society’s Industrial Law Committee, agrees that the law is a little murky when it comes to distinguishing between an employer’s legitimate safety concern, as opposed to when they’re interfering with a worker’s lifestyle choices.

“I think it is harder to justify certain random testings in industries like retail where people are working in shops or law firms where people are sitting at their desks,” she says.

“But then, I think that if there’s a suspicion held that a person’s capacity to perform their job is actually impaired, I think that can be a basis for testing, but I think random testing in those sorts of circumstances is still really to be tested in the courts in terms of whether that’s justified in all industries.”

Mr Cope from the Council of Civil Liberties is also concerned that employees have few rights in this area.

“There are some awards which give you some rights – outside that, there is no general right to object to this testing,” he says.

“Obviously if you got dismissed, you could then say you’d been unfairly dismissed, in terms of the normal industrial relations legislation… but there is no specific legislation dealing with this topic that I’m aware of in Australia…

“The only privacy protection you have is that the Privacy Act prevents employers from collecting information about people that is not legitimately connected with their performance of their role, but there’s not general privacy legislation dealing with this topic.”

Employees may have legitimate reasons to object to testing: even teetotallers may be taking prescribed drugs – like diet tablets, anti-depressants or anti-HIV drugs – that they’d like to keep private. However, these drugs will show up in their test.

“People have the right to privacy when it comes to medication,” agrees Mr Graham, who conducts the tests.

“The bigger companies – particularly mining companies we deal with – will ask people to talk discreetly with their supervisor and let them know that they’re taking medication that they’ve discussed with their doctor that indicates that they probably shouldn’t be working on machinery…

“They’re not required by most companies to disclose what the medication is, simply to go and see someone and say, the doctor has recommended that I don’t operate machinery for two days, three days whatever it is…”

The experts agree, however, that regardless of the complicated issues surrounding workplace drug and alcohol testing, the practice is here to stay.

“This certainly seems to be a worldwide trend,” says Mr Cope, although he points out that recent British research concluded that drug testing is only justified in the most safety critical areas and does not have a deterrent effect.

Tony Graham disagrees. “Basically since man got up off his hind legs and got his knuckles up off the ground we’ve been putting things into our system to change the way we feel so whether it’s alcohol or other drugs, people are going to continue to do it.

“The trick is if we can educate people to do it more safely… Testing is certainly doing that because people are becoming aware and becoming more careful about the environment in which they consume drugs/alcohol.

“It’s not going to go away. There will be more testing done, it’s growing all the time, but has the size of the problem increased? Probably, realistically, no.”

By Luise Straker

Source – http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2010/03/15/2845810.htm

Police conducted 11,926 roadside tests for cannabis, methylamphetamine and MDMA between June 1, 2009 and February 16, 2010.

The results showed 228 people tested positive, a rate of nearly 27 a month.

Since roadside drug tests were introduced on December 1, 2007, the number of people being caught has steadily increased with the frequency of tests.

In all of 2008, 11,217 swabs were done, netting 217 positive results, or 18 a month on average.

Police Minister Neil Roberts says there is a chance the number caught out is increasing because more people are taking a chance.

“It may be a case of more people taking a risk, which is totally unacceptable, or it may be because more targeted campaigns by police to protect people are working,” Mr Roberts told AAP.

The government released the drug test figures following a request from opposition police spokesman Vaughan Johnson.

Meanwhile, new data on roadside breath tests showed drink-driving is still one of the biggest safety concerns.

From June 2009 to January this year nearly 2.2 million breath tests were done, leading to more than 19,000 people being charged.

In 2008, alcohol and drugs were identified as a factor in 126 deaths, or 38.4 per cent of the Queensland road toll.

The Northern Territory police commissioner has defended the reliability of random drug testing methods.

Police want to be able to randomly drug test drivers for drugs like cannabis and ecstasy as well as alcohol.

Commissioner John McRoberts says drug testing technology has come a long way since a Victorian driver was wrongly accused in 2005.

“The testing regime in every state across Australia is now far more robust than it was back in the days when it was first introduced,” he said.

“There certainly doesn’t appear to be anything to support the fact that there’s anything but reliable testing in place now.”

nrl

The NRL’s strict anti-drug policy will be beefed up even further after it reached an agreement with the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) to widen testing.

Following talks between the NRL, the players’ association (RLPA) and ASADA, the bodies have agreed to begin testing for Human Growth Hormone (hGH), Erythropoietin (EPO) and Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator (CERA) on top of its existing program.

The NRL and ASADA have also endorsed the eight-year storage of blood and urine samples that the Authority may wish to retain for the purposes of future investigation.

“NRL players have always been available for any test that ASADA wishes to carry out under the WADA (World Anti-Doping Authority) code,” NRL CEO David Gallop said on Thursday.

“While it is always up to ASADA to determine its testing program, the NRL and RLPA’s additional support through this agreement makes it clear that players will undergo blood tests in 2010.”

“In ASADA, Australia has one of the most respected anti-doping authorities in the world and, in addition to its efforts, we invest substantially in further tests each year.”

“Our focus has always been on ensuring that those tests produce the most effective deterrent and ASADA has been a strong supporter of our existing programs.”

“By working with ASADA in what is a specialised area of testing, we are ensuring that rugby league’s existing program is maintained while also ensuring the game benefits from the latest advances in testing technology.”

“It is an area in which we have worked to make informed decisions on behalf of the sport and with the input of the players who have been supportive of a strong anti-doping policy.”

ASADA’s Richard Ings said: “The NRL has consistently shown its commitment to anti-doping by working closely with ASADA to develop and fund a best practice anti-doping program.”

“This additional NRL funding for expanded testing of hGH, EPO and CERA is a landmark achievement for the sport as it signals to players considering doping that the NRL is committed to protecting rugby league in this area.”

Drug driving is a major cause of road deaths in Victoria. In 2003, a total of 31 per cent of drivers killed in Victoria tested positive to drugs other than alcohol.
Research shows that a driver who has recently consumed cannabis or an  amphetamine based substance is at the same risk of having a crash as a driver with a blood alcohol concentration above 0.05.  The drug driving campaign is about improving road safety. Legislation prevents the evidence of saliva testing being used in court proceedings for non road safety matters. What effects do THC, MDMA (ecstasy) and methamphetamines have on driving ability?  THC (the active component in cannabis) impairs mental function and reduces attention and concentration on the driving task. THC significantly increases crash risk and affects driving even when there are no outward signs of impairment. Methamphetamines (speed) and MDMA (ecstasy) increase risk taking and aggression, and are often used by drivers to temporarily allow them to continue to drive even though they are too tired to do so safely. How long after consuming illicit drugs can they be detected?  The devices to be used detect THC for several hours after use. This can depend on a number of factors, such as the strength of the cannabis and individual metabolism. Drivers who may have inactive THC residue in their bodies from use in previous days/weeks will not be detected.
Methamphetamines (speed) may be detected for approximately 1 day or more after use. Large doses, other drugs taken at the same time, and differences in individual metabolism may affect the duration of the effects of these drugs.