The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA) chief executive Kirk Hardy suggests employers take a deterrent approach by updating drug and alcohol policies, talk to staff, clarify expectations and boundaries and implement measures such as random drug testing.
“Increased use means more people turning up to work who are impaired, whether it is 24 hours or 72 hours after they have consumed cannabis,” he said.
“That is a big challenge for employers.”
Each year, TDDA conducts 200,000 random drug tests for business and Hardy says they find traces of drugs in 5%.
Of that 5%, 70% is cannabis but a number have traces of a multiple of drugs in their system.
Hardy says updated workplace drug and alcohol policies should provide some protection for employers.
Policies should create a safe work environment, have a catch-all drugs testing system, state the method and frequency of testing and include provision for rehabilitating staff who test positive.
There are no tests to measure the degree of impairment, only if a person has consumed cannabis. Depending on the test, it can detect consumption within the previous 72 hours through a urine test, or up to four weeks from blood.
Hardy says tests are usually conducted pre-employment, randomly, post-incident or if an employer has reasonable grounds.
To detect cannabis, tests are either done orally or from urine samples. Urine tests are the most accurate.
Hardy says case law has determined health and safety concerns override any notion drug testing breaches human rights.
“It’s a requirement of health and safety,” he said.
“Ultimately, workplace safety is fiduciary duty for employers, to make sure everybody goes home safe at night.”
Tests cost just under $80 each and Hardy says they must include everyone, both employers and employees.
As with alcohol, the effects and degree of impairment from cannabis differ between individuals, but workplace drug and alcohol policies must set a standard and everyone holds to the standard.
“No one can determine impairment, but if you test positive there is a risk of being impaired and that is all they need to know,” he said.
Hardy says should the referendum succeed, cannabis will be readily available.
A BERL report calculates there will be more than 420 cannabis outlets established, greater in number than KFC, McDonald’s and Burger King combined.
Employers and Manufacturers Association’s employment relations and safety manager Paul Jarvie says the association does not support legalisation.
“It’s too open-ended, open to a lot of potential loopholes and requires companies to resource and manage something that is unmanageable,” he said.
This was especially an issue for small and medium companies which did not have the resources to manage drug testing. But that onus will change should the referendum succeed.
“We are saying to companies they need to revisit their drug and alcohol policy to make sure it is robust enough to deal with someone coming to work with a bottle of beer as that will be the same as someone coming to work with a joint,” he said.
Jarvie says potentially staff could smoke while on their tea or lunch break, visit a legal dispensary or consume the active psychoactive component, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) via food.
He urges business to restate the standards expected of staff while at work.
“You have got to be seen to be taking all reasonable and practical steps,” he said.
An example of the complexity of managing cannabis is the reality that many business health and safety plans have exclusions that allow the consumption of alcohol on certain occasions.
Jarvie says to be consistent, businesses may have to consider whether cannabis should similarly be exempt at times.
The issue has created a lot of anxiety among employers who, Jarvie says, note legalising cannabis contradicts the Smokefree 2025 policy.
