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Showing posts with the label Australian drug use

Drug Driving Advice On Australian Roads

Hazy Drug Driving Advice On Australian Roads                                   HuffPost Australia  |  By Eoin Blackwel Very interesting article by Eoin Blackwell as follows: If you’re a little dazed and confused about Random Drug Testing on Australia's roadsides, it’s probably not just because of what you’re smoking. RDTs are being rolled out across the country at an increasing rate, with as many as 200,000 drivers to be tested in Victoria and 100,000 in NSW by 2017. Prompted by a recent NSW court case, where a Lismore man was acquitted after being pinged nine days after having cannabis , The Huffington Post Australia decided to investigate the state of play in each state. Cannabis is, af

Private Lives v Saving Lives

Privacy Intrusions and When Drug Testing in Australia National Law Review 19 May 2015 There has been a long running battle in Australia about whether an employer, when testing for drug use, can ask employees to provide a urine sample. Many unions have resisted the introduction of urine testing, arguing that saliva testing is sufficient and, as such, the process of sampling urine is an unjustified invasion of privacy. Employers, however, want to have both methods available, arguing that saliva testing has recognised limitations. Last month, the Fair Work Commission ( Commission ) sided with an employer by granting them the right to perform both saliva and urine testing on its employees for drug use. More...........

Influx of deadly synthetic drugs sets off alarm bells

Influx of deadly synthetic drugs sets off alarm bells Rory Callinan, Investigative journalist, The Age Academics and law enforcement officers have expressed growing alarm about the tide of synthetic drugs that have claimed five lives, including three students, in 14 months. Amid a proliferation of drugs designed by sophisticated overseas laboratories to mimic LSD, cannabis and methamphetamines, one academic forecasts worse is to come. Law officials also point out the difficulties in outlawing the drugs when laboratories regularly change the chemical composition to avoid bans. The acting chief executive of the Australian Crime Commission, Paul Jevtovic, says: ''The reality is we can't keep up. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction has found that, since 2011, we are seeing a new drug in this category every week.'' Governments, including Victoria's, have been trying to outlaw the trade by banning any substa

Methamphetamine use and addiction in Australia

methamphetamine use and addiction in Australia By Nicole Lee Associate Professor at the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction at Flinders University More commonly known by the street names speed, ice or crystal meth, both amphetamine and methamphetamine belong to a group of stimulant drugs called amphetamines. Australia has one of the highest rates of illicit methamphetamine use in the world and the highest use among English-speaking countries. Around 2.5% of Australians over 14 years – around half a million people – have used methamphetamine in the last year. This rate is three- to five-times higher than the USA, Canada (0.5%) or the UK (1%). Illicit use The illegal manufacture of street amphetamines in Australia is almost exclusively methamphetamine. Illicit methamphetamine is manufactured in local “meth labs” and also imported from South-East Asia. The drug usually comes in powder or pills (speed) or cr