Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Glenn Dobson: Drug Detection Agency CEO on workplace testing revealing surging cocaine use

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Glenn Dobson: Drug Detection Agency CEO on workplace testing revealing surging cocaine use · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: Our increasing love of cocaine is bleeding through into the workplace.
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  Speaker 1: Quarterly data from the Drug Detection Agency shows a 120%
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  Speaker 1: jump in cocaine in random workplace drug testing. By the way,
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  Speaker 1: also a 200% rise in meth. Glenn Dobson is the
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  Speaker 1: CEO of the Drug Detection Agency and joins me now. Hello, Glenn.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, good morning, Andrew.
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  Speaker 1: Get all these horrific statistics and no politician wants to
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  Speaker 1: do anything about it. Why is that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it's a scary statistic and certainly indicates that
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  Speaker 2: we've got a real drug problem in the workplaces. I
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  Speaker 2: guess at the moment we've gone into the election, it'll
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  Speaker 2: be a hot topic for the politics, but I'll leave
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  Speaker 2: those discussions for the politicians.
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  Speaker 1: OK, so what is happening to all these people who
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  Speaker 1: are doing coca work? Do they get punished?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, most workplaces have a solid drug and alcohol
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  Speaker 2: policy in the workplace, and what it does is it
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  Speaker 2: guides the employer on how to manage it. Generally speaking,
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  Speaker 2: these days, there's rehabilitation offered, and what they're looking for
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  Speaker 2: is for the employer to engage and to work through
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  Speaker 2: stop taking the drug and making the workplace a safer place.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously, we test people in the workplace. Do you also
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  Speaker 1: support testing beneficiaries?
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  Speaker 2: Again, that's a hot topic for the election at the moment,
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  Speaker 2: isn't it? I mean, we know that drugs are out
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  Speaker 2: there in the community. These stats show that there's an
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  Speaker 2: increase in cocaine and meth is really steady as well.
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  Speaker 2: And if the drugs are in the community, they then
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  Speaker 2: come into the workplaces, which make them less safe. But certainly,
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  Speaker 2: whether beneficiaries get tested or not, that's a really good
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  Speaker 2: discussion with politicians.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, very good. Get off the fence, Glenn. If you
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  Speaker 1: were chief, if you were the big boss guy, what
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  Speaker 1: would you do about this drug scourge?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, first and foremost, as we've said before, there's no
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  Speaker 2: one simple answer. This is a really complex issue, but
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  Speaker 2: we need treatment. We need help for people that want
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  Speaker 2: to engage and get off the drugs, and that's right
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  Speaker 2: across the community. That's based on the community and on
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  Speaker 2: the health system as well. But we also need consequences.
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  Speaker 2: One of the issues, I think, with cocaine is that
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  Speaker 2: it's becoming socially acceptable. That came out in a Massey
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  Speaker 2: study last week, and we need consequences for people so
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  Speaker 2: that if they don't want to change, there are consequences
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  Speaker 2: for the bad behaviour.
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  Speaker 1: Good stuff, Glenn. Thank you so much for your time.
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  Speaker 1: Glenn runs the Drug Detection Agency.