On any given day in South Australia’s safety-sensitive industries, close to 5,000 people would be working with methamphetamines in their system.
 
They could have taken ice, speed, crystal meth or other methamphetamines the night before, or even two days before, and even if they think they’re fine to operate machinery, drive a truck or work in a mine they’re not, because their senses are impaired.
 
Figures complied by national drug testing organisation SafeWork Laboratories show that in South Australian safety-sensitive industries in 2017 – which include construction, mining, agriculture, forestry, fishery, manufacturing, transport, postal, warehousing, electricity, gas, water and waste services – 2.2 per cent of workers tested recorded positive results for methamphetamines in their system. 

With 226,400 full-time and part-time workers in those industries in South Australia alone, SafeWork Laboratories toxicologist Andrew Leibie said the positive test figures represented a large proportion of the state’s workforce. 

“That means today there’s 5,000 people working in a safety-sensitive industry who have tested positive, tomorrow it might be another 5,000 separate people,” Mr Leibie said.

It’s highly important for worksites to have polices in place to deal with drug use, testing requirements in certain industries and tolerance, including having plans for dealing with users, referral groups if needed and legal obligations.
 
So what is the extent of the problem?
 
Alcohol and drugs cost Australian workplaces an estimated $6 billion per year in lost productivity.
Recent research has estimated that 2.5 million days are lost annually due to alcohol and drug use, at a cost of more than $680 million.

• 3.1 million Australians (15.6%) aged 14 or older illicitly used drugs in 2016
• Use was highest among the 20-29 year old age group (28%)
• Use of illicit drugs has increased among people in their 40’s (from 12% to 16%), and 50’s (from 6.7% to 12%) between 2001 and 2016
• Cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine and methamphetamines were the most consumed illegal drugs in 2016
• 1 in 5 methamphetamine users said they used the drug weekly or more frequently in 2016
• 1 in 20 Australians (4.8%) aged 14 years and over admitted to misusing a pharmaceutical drug in the previous 12 months 

For assistance with managing a drug-safe workplace, find out more at our Drugs and Alcohol in the Workplace training course - click here for details.