Never easy trying to talk to you antiseptic.
Just as my slanted views on unions and Labor are in every post, yours here again compares men and womens illnesses?
Fact is bloke we support prostrate and ask members to contribute just one dollar a week to fund it, not us experts get the cash.
We ask constantly that members wives get them to be tested, I may well have a problem here too.
Remember drug and alcohol testing is the subject.
Who thinks the dead and injured are always users?
An understanding of just how hard SOME truckers use drugs is needed.
Some use speed some heroin some cocaine, most handle it and get of it at some time.
Some tablets on sale at every thing from Chemists to back doors at truck stops are very dangerous.
I knew of a chemist on the outskirts of Sydney that sold pills to any truck driver until police closed it down, other side of town a service station sold a truck load.
I am the last person in the world to point the finger but as a trade unionist I know, totally, no one has the Right to be in the workplace while affected by drugs or grog.
I can show you blue collar workers who lost jobs $100.000 jobs in computer handling because they came to work drugged and continued to use at work.
I am confident my stand helps more workers than it hurts and see ALWAYS help and counseling comes first always.
PS
if every worker in Australia contributed one dollar a week to a fight cancer fund we could beat it just $1

Not content to just show his ignorance of the effect of dope on the brain of users, Antiseptic goes on to declare <" Prostate cancer now presents a significantly higher hazard than breast cancer."

Where did you get that info from Antiseptic? We should all be equally concerned about both sorts of cancers.

I work with palliative care patients, and I see far more breast cancer patients than prostate cancer patients.

There are now blood tests that men can take to detect any early prostate problems. There are still no such tests for breast cancer. Breast cancer is found once it is already growing.

We need much more research in both areas, as they are both horrible cancers.
But hey, I suppose you know better of course.

Belly:"Fact is bloke we support prostrate and ask members to contribute just one dollar a week to fund it"

Good work. I wasn't aware of that. It's become a real scourge for older men and there's very little funding that hasn't been hijacked by the "pink ribbon" mob.

Belly:"An understanding of just how hard SOME truckers use drugs is needed."

So your argument is that SOME truckies use to excess so ALL have to submit to testing? That's the essence of nanny-statism and I reject it. If a driver's mates or an employer or the cops or transport department or even *gasp* the Union knows of a partuicular person doing the wrong thing then by all means test him/her, but don't demand that those who might be using responsibly submit to the same thing.

The US military supplies its pilots with amphetamines, especially dexedrine to help them stay awake on long flights and I'm sure other nations do the same. Are you worried that pilots "hopped up" on amphetamines are flying around with nuclear weapons on board?

As always, it's misuse that is the problem. As a good unionist, you should be doing your best to stop employers trampling the rights of your members, not encouraging them.

Perhaps, instead of leaving it in the hands of backyarders you might propose a Gov-operated scheme for didtribution of properly manufactured and dosed dexedrine? It's stronger and "cleaner" than methamphetamine and it would be much, much cheaper for the truckies, as well as keeping the bikies away.

Suzie, tell us agaion how cannabis makes people "aggressive" and "invincible" rather than "placid" and "paranoid"...

On second thoughts, perhaps Mum's advice might be useful: "it's better to remain siilent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt".

While you're doing that, you might like to look at the ABS and
the NH&MRC figures. Breast screening has become so over-used that doctors (you know them, they tell you what to do) are calling for programs to be wound back as a waste of money. Naturally, the pink ribbon bandwagon-riders are "outraged"...

I tried Antiseptic give me that,have you ever sat in the cab of a truck, drove all night then after an hour sleep turned around and driven home.
Did you see my claim that drug abuse [ in long distance driving] is more often used than not?
I ask contributors to ROberts thread to think on this.
4 people on the stage to talk to us.
One is the owner or boss of a plant.
He will tell us of his duty of care to his workers, all his workers, he/she may tell of past injury's or deaths.
next is the family of a worker killed or forever crippled by drug use in the work place.
third, let it be a police officer who investigates road trauma.
Last let the drug user alcohol user tell us of his her rights to? be affected while at work by his problems.

Belly:"I tried Antiseptic give me that,have you ever sat in the cab of a truck, drove all night then after an hour sleep turned around and driven home."

Many times. If you're concerned about the hours, take steps to stop such back-to-back runs. Attack the cause, which is largely the profit motive, rather than the cure chosen by some, which is speed.

As I said in my first post:"

Belly:"Did you see my claim that drug abuse [ in long distance driving] is more often used than not?"

And yet the accident rate for such trucks is much lower than for cars driven to the shops.

As I said yesterday:"By all means, check logbooks, pull trucks over to check miles and times, put monitoring cameras about to ensure they can't cheat and do back-to-back Sydney/Perth runs or something". If there is pressure on drivers to do long hours with inadequate turnarounds there will be some who look to stimlants. I'd rather see them using something like dexedrine than overdosing on Red Bull or V or no-doz and getting the caffeine jitters and the rest. I've personally had more adverse effects from excessive caffeine that any other drug. Should Red Bull be banned?

I'm not having a go at you on this Belly, I'm sure you're sincere, but you're loking through a flawed glass. In your zeal to help them you're treating your members like babies who are incapable of making their own informed decisions. Far roo much of Unionism has become devoted to this sort of thinking, where "we know best and the poor sheep should just trust us to do what's best for them". It's elitist and insulting.

Am in agreement with Celivia's, Pelican's, Belly's and Hasbeen's points regarding drug testing.

Clearly there are certain jobs which hold great responsibility such paramedics, pilots, police and so forth whose judgement requires a clear head. For these occupations, tests need to be for drugs whether they are legal; alcohol and prescriptive medication or illegal; amphetamines, pot. However, I believe that R0bert's mandatory testing is invasive and draconian. As Celivia (welcome back) stated the non-brain altering compounds of pot remain in the body long after the effects have worn off.

Suzeonline

I understand that excessive use of marijuana can precipitate schizophrenia in pre-disposed individuals. For the majority of people pot is a relaxant and is used legally in some countries as a recreational drug and for the treatment of chronic pain. Used to enjoy the occasional toke myself. Anti states that he has a toke around lunch time. I suggest an evaluation of his posting times (most of which are in the early AM) is rather telling and other posts are later in the day after the mellowing effects have worn off.

:)