People are in different classes. What class are you in?Some people struggle more than others do in order to survive. People take drugs to get through their life. Whether it's illegal or not has no bearing on what an employee can do for you as an employer.
Does your employee criticise you for cutting a corner in order for you his employer to make a profit?
In the gamble of life you take the good with the bad and the results can easily be seen. If there are no results then your employer will go broke. Based on your work performance your employer can sack you or keep you on depending on what you can do for the company. You can tell nine times out of ten if your employee is drunk on the job. Or stoned out of his/her mind and won't perform.
So what is the problem? Police, politicians, workers, and bosses are all stressed at some point. Better to admit what is real and call a spade a spade and let people get on with the job.
Zero tolerance is a contradiction within itself because a human being is not infallible and therefore a human being can only do their best.
Do not judge what a person has to do in order to survive.
Ageing causes people to respond. You're on a rock face in reality. Wind, rain, sun and waves crashing around you breaking you down slowly. Even the air you breathe is eating your internal organs away. Humanity accuses people of judging others so who are you to be the judge?
Employers have been accused of jumping the gun by introducing drug and alcohol testing programs while neglecting other issues that could impair a worker's performance, such as fatigue.
Fatigue may be correct but this statement indirectly attempts to cover up the reality of employers who may take drugs. People don't want to be seen as having to depend on drugs for medicinal purposes.
What about the employers own performance excuse me? Do the employers who wish to introduce this testing intend to test themselves first to see whether they're qualified to judge their employees?
If you want to introduce drug testing it has to be across the board starting from the top Prime Minister down. In that order because the ministers are leading us by example. Then there would be a need to go into the High Court of Australia and the bureaucracy, on to police and medical and then trickling down to the common class of workers.
If you're not prepared to have this type of reform then who are you 'Qantas' to be the Judge?
A drug testing specialist, Judith Perl, a forensic pharmacologist with NSW Police, said she expected many employers to follow companies such as Qantas in introducing schemes in an effort to meet obligations under occupational health and safety laws.
Is this Qantas or John Howard?
Qantas plans to trial random drug and alcohol testing in Sydney later this month, but is facing strong union criticism about the potential for discrimination and privacy breaches.
Dr Perl said occupational health and safety changes were putting company bosses in a position to ensure that there was a safe working environment.
"They are all jumping the gun and saying, 'Well, let's drug test'," Dr Perl said.
"They will be thinking if they are seen as doing something, that makes for a safe environment. But they neglect things that are in the too-hard basket, like fatigue."
Over the next three days Qantas employees will attend briefings by union officials about random urine- and breath-testing.
Qantas expects to test about 5 per cent of its 35,000-strong workforce each year once the program is fully operational.
Ten unions are involved in the campaign against the program. They say they do not oppose drug and alcohol testing to prevent and determine impairment, but they are concerned that the trial will force workers to reveal use of prescription medicines or over-the-counter drugs.
The assistant national secretary of the Australian Services Union, Linda White, said the tests would pick up whether workers took HIV or IVF medication or Viagra.
"People don't think that that's any business of their employer," Ms White said. "People are concerned that there's a privacy issue."
But a spokesman for Qantas, Michael Sharp, said it would not test for HIV and IVF medication or Viagra. It was only interested in three types of drugs depressants, stimulants and hallucinogens - and thresholds (such as a 0.02 blood-alcohol level) would apply.
He said the program emphasised education and rehabilitation, with staff testing positive to undergo counselling and return a negative test before they returned to work.
"We respect all employees rights to privacy the focus of it always has been our commitment to safety on the ground and in the air," Mr Sharp said.
By Medicinal Purposes Workplace Reporter 5 August 03
THE BIRD: Why did you take that drug? Because it was there and because it relieved my tension. Some people take to the bottle to find solace because it removes tension. Tension that could otherwise cause a company to go broke. We respect all employers right to privacy as long as the drug testing starts with the employers CEO's and is not discriminatory in that Prime Minister John Howard is tested as well as everybody else. Otherwise you could be judging others without judging yourself.
That's not fair. Your have an expectation about what others should do but not what you have done yourself. How do you rate?
Related:
Alcohol Abuse: You're one of my kind?
Special Minister of state John Della Bosca says there is only a small percentage of people who are alcoholics, but that small percentage has a disproportionate impact on their own health and costs to society. Small percentage? Excuse me? Do I need a calculator? Or do I need a new set of eyes? According to the statistics at least two million people abuse alcohol?
Australia: Wine glut alert?
Wine glut alerts bank to grape grower debt and we need to be aware there's no magic bullet here either, it is a chronic condition just like the other one? You know, Abra Cadabra.
Australian Alcohol Abuse: Abra Cadabra, I want to reach out and grab ya No magic bullet? This is a chronic condition! Government's Legal Drug Alcohol is costing Australia billions: study. Alcohol-related incidents cost the Australian taxpayer more than $7 billion in a single year. Of that sum, $2 billion arose from loss of life, pain and suffering. The report says in 1998 alone more than 2,000 Australians died from alcohol abuse.
Drug law blamed for hep C epidemic
THE federal Government's conservative tough-on-drugs policies have triggered an explosion in hepatitis C infections, a secret health department report has found. And the disease has become an "epidemic", with half a million Australians likely to have the debilitating virus by 2020.
MJA - BBCD Outbreaks in NSW prisons
Seems some of our friends in & around Corrections Health Service (CHS) were able to take advantage of a couple of recognised cases of needle sharing by HIV positive prisoners to gather data for a study.
Medicinal cannabis trial approved or not marijuana still remains a big hit! THE nation's first trial of cannabis for medical relief will begin in NSW by the end of the year, a move that Premier Bob Carr said yesterday would stop decent people feeling like criminals.
CWA wants pot legalised
PERCEIVED as the height of conservatism, the Country Women's Association has had a reputation for baking and handicrafts until now. The organisation yesterday confirmed it is seeking to have cannabis legalised for health reasons. A recommendation to be put forward to the annual meeting in May calls for the legalisation of the drug for the treatment of terminally ill patients.
Drunks propel rise in violent crimes! But who promotes drinking really?
Every day NSW police deal with more than 300 violent offences committed by people who are drunk and they say the number is rising. But they don't say because the government promotes alcohol and only alcohol.
Another lethal party drug article...
This is another lethal party drug article by the Daily Telegraph's (DT)'s Super Crime Buster Division, but I'll try to straighten it out a bit so you can understand it.
Poison Ivy: Drugs and Substances
Everything is a drug love, money, vegemite, and honey so why the hang up on coke? Things go better with Coke. at least that's what we're told each and every day by advertising. [?] So why the big hang up on alcohol, amphetamines, cigarettes, marijuana, speed, ecstasy and cocaine?
Police selling drugs? Bikies selling drugs? Pharmacies prescribing drugs Of course there will be criticism when you cross that thin blue line! You have to realise how the government itself has been corrupted because of the drug scene and the money involved.
Drug rehabilitation: Threats, threats and more threats!
But a spokesperson for Citizens Against Being Forced Mr Ihave Amind Ofmyown said, "Major Watters is John Howard's adviser because he's a bully. Citizens make their own decisions about what is best for them and if you don't like that step down."
MPs told of police corruption
Corruption and mismanagement are still entrenched in the NSW Police, and problems at the highest levels are "whitewashed", according to evidence given yesterday to a federal parliamentary committee.
Alcohol is just the beginning
People who start using alcohol by their mid teens are more than twice as likely as others to experiment with different drugs and to become dependent on drugs a major Australian study has found.
Tobacco, alcohol top the drug abuse toll
Tobacco and alcohol accounted for 83 per cent of the cost of drug abuse in Australia, dwarfing the financial impact of illegal drugs, a Commonwealth Government report has found.
NSW police cracked up on antisocial behaviour
Hundreds of extra police will be on the streets of Sydney from this afternoon as part of a major blitz on crime and activities as "antisocial behaviour" says the ABC online last Fri 24 May 2002.
Alcohol pickles your brain
The only two social drugs the Government sanction are cigarettes and alcohol as legal, yet they cause the most damage." He said.
