Compulsory drug testing for unemployed people in Aotearoa NZ:

Widening the net of punitive populism?

Julian Buchanan

Drug Testing Beneficiaries

• Govt will stop benefits for repeated failed drugs tests from beneficiaries

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/policies/5969312/National-gets-tough-on-benefits

Punitive Populism • ‘Around 40 per cent of the jobs listed with Work

and Income require drug tests’ • beneficiaries who fail a test will have the cost of

the drug test deducted from their benefit.• "Where people fail a drug test or refuse to apply

for a drug-tested job, they must agree to stop using drugs or their benefit will be cut by 50 per cent. They will be given 30 days to allow any drugs they have taken to leave their system.

• "Where they fail a test or refuse a second time, they will have their benefit suspended until they agree that they will provide a 'clean' drug test within 30 days. If they do not do this their benefit will be cancelled.

• She said estimates at the high end put the cost of enforcing the policy at $10 million. "We really think the real cost is around $3 million for those that will be known as dependent, once this testing comes in. The savings are estimated to be around $10.5 million."

Policy Transfer?UK Coercive Approaches

UK Drugs Act 2005 enables:

• drug test suspected drug offenders on arrest, rather than on charge

• suspected to have swallowed an illegal substance remand in police custody up to 192 hours.

• If that person refuses without good cause, to consent to an intimate body search, x-ray or ultrasound scan the Act allows the court or jury to draw an adverse inference.

• Can be placed on new ASBO equivalent to get drug treatment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZRk3qyQzp2w

New Business Opportunities

Technology Drive Policy: Sobriety Tag

Issues

Detection period

The detection times of abused drugs are extremely variable. … In urine the detection time of a single dose varies between 1.5 and 4 days. In chronic users, drugs of abuse can be detected in urine for approximately 1 week after last use, and in extreme cases even longer in cocaine (22 days) and cannabis users (up to 3 months).

Verstraete, A.G., 2004. Detection times of drugs of abuse in blood, urine, and oral fluid. Ther Drug Monit 26, 200–205.

Reliability: false positives & false negatives

• Human error• Technology error• Significant human variation• Detection avoided by intervention• Detection triggered by ‘innocent’ means

http://workrights.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/NewInformationDrugTesting.pdf

Misleading Bifurcation of

Substances

Little or no distinctionbetween

USE and MISUSE

Extent of Drug Use

Human rights

• John Stuart Mill (1978) argues that liberalism states that the freedom of the individual to pursue pleasure is a right that should not be challenged unless it conflicts with the well-being of other citizens. The pursuit of pleasure must be seen as a personal matter of the free citizen. The state (and the criminal justice system in particular) should not intervene, unless intervention is necessary for the protection of other citizens: The only purpose for which power can be rightly exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral is not a sufficient warrant.

• “The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.” ― John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

Drug policy, harm and human rights: A rationalist approach (Stevens 2011)

So the answer to the question of whether there is a right to drug use appears to be yes. But it is a rather small yes. People may rationally choose to experience the effects of psychoactive substances, even if they have no objective need for them(p.236)

It may be the case that ideology will continue to dominate drug policy.. Drug policy debates need not be seen as a merely matter of personal preference, political tradition, technocratic calculation or legal interpretation. They are an arena for rational and ethical argument.(p.238)

Presence and

Impairment

Little or no distinctionbetween

Zero ToleranceAbstinence Based Policy

Harm Reduction

Policy based evidence not evidenced based policy

Increase use of new more dangerous legal highs

If cannabis can stay in the body for up to a month –

sometimes even 3 months -some beneficiaries may

switch to other more harmful drugs?

Savings claims in doubt

Policy & Profit Based Evidence

Cashman C.M., Ruotsalainen J., Greiner B.A. et al. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews: 2009, 2, Art. No.: CD006566.Exhaustive Systematic Review finds just two rigorous studies of workplace testing for alcohol and/or drug use of people employed as drivers.

Testing employees in the workplace for alcohol and drug use is commonplace in some countries but its effect in reducing occupational injuries remains unclear.The state of the evidence is insufficient to be able to advise for or against drug and alcohol testing of occupational drivers as the sole long-term solution to preventing injuries in the context of workplace culture, peer interaction and other local factors.

Issues

Unreliable and over simplisticBreach of human rightsUnrealistic and intolerantUnnecessarily targets ‘use’ not misusePromote abstinence undermines harm reductionPerpetuates a drugs apartheidPolicy-based evidence not evidence based policyCostlyEncourages use of more dangerous substances

The new war on drugs

• Moving away from drug cultivation to get tough and wage war on illicit ‘drug’ use through the use of an ever expanding drug testing technology

Conclude

• Politically driven punitive populism

• Opportunities for stakeho• Technologically supported simplicity and

certainty

• Policy based evidenceThank you

julian.buchanan@vuw.ac.nz