It's a frightening, shocking and concerning statistic. On any given day an average of 5000 people working in safety-sensitive industries are turning up to work in South Australia affected by methamphetamines.

And that’s not including people working in hospitality, tourism or white-collar industries.

There’s no doubt those drug-affected workers would fail to see how much of a risk they pose to themselves and their colleagues. Their attention could falter and they could cause a workplace accident. Their health could fail and they could collapse or have a seizure. Their mood could swing wildly, and no-one wants to work with an erratic or psychotic colleague who could threaten their safety or wellbeing.

Many people don’t know that methamphetamines, and in particular ice, can stay in a person’s system for 48 hours. That worker could choose to take it on a Saturday night but the effects will linger long into Monday.

There is growing concern in the business community about the impacts of ice on the workforce. And it isn’t just safety. If you’re smoking a colourless and odourless ice pipe in a toilet cubicle on a Wednesday to get you through the working week, there’s no question you’re going to be less productive than your colleagues. Drug use and abuse is a complex social issue that workplace laws alone cannot address, and neither can every business.

To help the increasing number of businesses calling our hotline for advice on how to deal with staff they suspect are under the influence, we have produced a discussion paper on dealing with ice and other methamphetamine use at work.

We want all businesses to create their own policies around drug and alcohol use in the workplace, so they can prepare themselves to deal with incidents should they arise.

That could mean including a regular drug testing regime, a causal testing system which is triggered by evidence or accidents, workplace education and employee assistance programs.

Business SA is not calling for all organisations to implement drug testing. It’s not a one-size-fits-all model, and every workplace operates differently. However, we think it’s important for businesses to know how to deal with drug-related incidents.

Our discussion paper, The Ice Age, shows there is light at the end of the tunnel for businesses fearing drugs could be on their doorstep.

Estha van der Linden is senior policy adviser at Business SA