Farm Forestry New Zealand

A safe workplace is free of alcohol and other drugs

Sue Nolan, New Zealand Tree Grower November 2016.

People affected by alcohol and other drugs pose a threat to health, safety and performance. Therefore, testing for alcohol and other drugs in the workplace is now common in New Zealand, particularly for industry which has safety-sensitive jobs − forestry falls within the safety sensitive category.

The Health and Safety at Work Act requires employers and employees to identify the risks of potential hazards and have procedures in place to manage and eliminate the risks. An alcohol or drug impaired person has always been identified as a potential risk. Therefore, a robust modern alcohol and drug policy and procedures, which include testing, should be a requirement for managing this risk. This article will focus on −

• Drugs which are commonly available in New Zealand
• Misuse and abuse of alcohol
• What companies should be testing for.

The article in the next issue of Tree Grower will focus on methods commonly used to beat the test and how to prepare a drug and alcohol policy and procedures for small businesses.

High	Crashing
Hyperactivity and alertness, being wired	Tired, poor energy
Focussed	Moodiness
Greater self-confidence and talkative	Low output
Euphoria	Poor quality
Superhuman strength	Paranoia
Reduced appetite and weight loss
Unreliability causing mistakes and errors
Erratic behaviour	Erratic behaviour
Aggression, violent behaviour	Aggression, violent behaviour

Traditional and current drug trends

Over the past few years there have been significant changes in the drugs which are readily available and are being abused in New Zealand. Until 2000, the most commonly available drugs were called depressant drugs because they slow a person’s brainwave and central nervous system down. Typical adverse effects of an employee or contractor being under the influence of a depressant drug at work include −

• Slow reaction time and information processing
• Poor concentration
• Difficulty in measuring distances
• Short term memory and forgetfulness
• Uncoordinated and bad balance
• Fatigue and low output

Adverse effects of an employee or contractor being under the influence of a stimulate drug at work will depend on whether they are at work when they are high or crashing. The effects include those shown in the table below. Alcohol is the most commonly used and abused depressant drug but there are many others.

Cannabis

Cannabis is readily grown outdoors and hydroponically. The potency of cannabis is higher now than 20 years ago due to the elevated levels of the active drug component, THC or tetrahyrocannabinol. Hash oil is manufactured by extracting the resin from the plant material using a solvent and concentrating the extract to a sticky oil which is a more potent form of cannabis. The international statistics indicate that New Zealand is the second highest user of cannabis per person in the world.

Opiates

These drugs include heroin, morphine, codeine and oxycodone. They are analgesic drugs used to treat mild to chronic pain. While it is commonly known that heroin is a highly addictive drug, the other opiates drugs also can cause dependency if regularly used. The most common form of heroin is manufactured from codeine preparations, such as panadeine tablets. The process involves extracting the codeine and cooking it with chemicals which will convert the codeine initially to morphine and finally an impure form of heroin. This unique Kiwi manufacturing process is called homebaking.

Benzodiazepines

Benzodiazepines are tranquillisers, sedatives and antidepressants which can legally only be obtained with a prescription. However, unfortunately some are readily available on the black market and over the internet. Drug users who regularly use stimulant drugs such as P often resort to these drugs to become sedated after being high.

Kava and LSD

Kava is made from the root of the kava shrub and traditionally use by Pacific Islander and ethnic Fijian Indians. It causes numbing and drowsiness and should not be used within at least 12 hours of reporting to work.

The other dug which was commonly available in the flower power period of 1960s and 1970s was the potent hallucinogen drug, LSD, commonly referred to as acid. While LSD abuse was not prevalent in 1990s, it has resurged since 2010. The effects of hallucinogenic drugs are to rewire the chemical signals in the brain creating the illusion of seeing sound and hearing colours. LSD is normally sold as a small square of brightly coloured absorbent paper called a ticket or a tab which is either swallowed or absorbed into the eyeball.

The new Millennium

Crystal methamphetamine

In 2001, New Zealanders decided they needed to be highly stimulated as well as depressed so the gangs worked out how to accommodate this need by starting to manufacture the very addictive drug crystal methamphetamine. The name given to the New Zealand brand of crystal methamphetamine is P. There are P labs scattered all over the country manufacturing this drug from the decongestant drug pseudoephedrine. More recently, large importations of crystal methamphetamine have also been seized, such as the $448 million seizure in June this year from a yacht in Northland.

For the past four years New Zealand has been one of the world’s highest users per person of this drug. In some regions it is claimed to be easier to access P than cannabis and numerous houses are contaminated with the toxic by-products of P.

Ecstasy

Ecstasy or E is readily available and could be one of four or five designer amphetamine drugs. It has both stimulant and hallucinogenic properties and is a favourite of the rave dance scenes due to the mood altering properties and increased energy.

Cocaine

New Zealand does not yet have a significant cocaine problem but there has been an increase in importation over the past few years. The most recent was the $14 million seizure found in a large ornamental replica of a horse’s head.

Party pills and herbal highs

Since 2000, there has been a wide range of imported drugs referred to as party pills or herbal highs which were being sold as legal drugs at local dairies and dedicated party pill shops until 2014. While these drugs are no longer legal to sell, they are readily available on the black market.

Most of them have a mix of stimulant and hallucinogenic properties, such as BZP, DMAA and Salvia. Some of these are now categorised as illegal or restricted drugs and others are still legal to use but not to sell. Regardless of their legal status, an employee or contractor should not be at work under the influence of any of these mind altering substances.

Designer drugs

Since 2009, the international drug scene has changed significantly with the emergence of a wide range of designer drugs referred to as novel psychoactive substances. Many of these are readily available in New Zealand and popular among workers who want to deliberately beat their company’s out-of-date drug testing programme. Most of these designer drugs will not be detected in a traditional workplace drug testing programme and require additional laboratory tests to pick them up. Currently the most commonly available on the black market are outlined below

Synthetic cannabinoid

These depressant and hallucinogenic drugs started to be sold as legal highs around 2009. The initial product was named Kronic and it was formulated and distributed from a factory in Albany and sold from every corner dairy and party pill outlet throughout the country.

When Kronic was declared illegal in 2013, many other types of synthetic cannabinoids were immediately imported and sold under a variety of brands such as spice, Northern Lights, K2, Puff, Tai High and Magic Dragon. There have now been over 60 different types identified in New Zealand. The current status is that they are illegal to sell but some versions are not illegal to use. Internationally the medical and treatment experts are claiming these synthetics are between five and ten times worse that using cannabis. Some of the adverse effects are shown in the table.

Mind altering	Rapid heart rate	Psychosis
Confusion	Nausea	Paranoia
Disorientation	Anxiety	Suicidal
Dizziness	Depression	Dependency
Hallucinations	Seizures	Schizophrenia

Synthetic cathinones

Synthetic cathinones are also known as bath salts or plant food. This class of synthetic drugs have both stimulant and hallucinogenic effects and can cause serious out of control behaviour. They are also known to be highly addictive. At least 30 different types have already been identified in New Zealand and commonly used by workers to beat the standard drug test.

N-bomb

While LSD is often painted as the psychedelic equivalent of a tie-die t-shirt, the new n-bomb is portrayed as a potent potion of peril. This hallucinogen, often sold as acid, is much more potent than LSD. There have been some different derivatives identified as readily available in New Zealand since 2012. There have also been reports of people ending up in critical care and sometimes deaths result from abuse of this hallucinogenic.

Alcohol misuse and abuse

The most commonly misused and abused drug is alcohol. Over 85 per cent of adults in New Zealand use alcohol. If a person is a consumer of this drug, and they are working in a safety-sensitive industry, it is not acceptable to report to work with alcohol still in the system. It is definitely not acceptable to drink alcohol during a working day or working shift.

The rule of thumb is that the average person can metabolise one standard alcoholic drink each hour. Therefore, if a person was expected to report to work at 6.00 am and had consumed three or four drinks the evening before by 11.00 pm, and also has a wholesome dinner, the three or four standard drink should have flushed out of the system by the early hours of the morning. However, if that person was still drinking until the early hours of the morning and loading the body with surplus alcohol, they would not be sober and alcohol free at 6.00 or 7.00 am.

Alcohol and your metabolism

Alcoholic beverage	Standard drinks
Beer can or bottle 330 ml	1 to 1.5
Beer pint	2
Wine standard glass	1
Wine bottle	8
Spirit nip	1
Spirit pub serving	2

What companies should be testing for

For a compliant drug and alcohol free workplace policy which include testing, a company should consider testing for the wide range of drugs which are commonly misused or abused. Many of these drugs, particularly the designer drugs, will only be able to be tested at the laboratory because on-site instant screening tests cannot be produced for drug classes which are continually changing.

The standards drug testing suite which has been traditionally monitored and which out-of-date policies still only include are −

• Cannabis
• Cocaine
• Amphetamine type substances
• Opiates
• Benzodiazepines.

A modern testing policy also should include −

• Synthetic cannabinoids
• Cathinones or bathsalts
• Misuse of prescription drugs which are commonly abused
• All party drugs and legal highs whether legal or illegal
• Kava
• Ketamine
• Other mind altering substances as they become available and are misused.

Sue Nolan is the Director of DrugFree Sites www.drugfreesites.co.nz