Category Archives: News

How can workplaces manage risk due to substance use? In spite of rigid urine and hair testing regimes, drug use in NZ has not decreased, rather they have opened pathways for ventures that provide powdered/synthetic urine. Drug Screening has mainly become a tick exercise and we have lost the intent of why we are screening. […]

Advance Diagnostics is proud to advise they are the first suppliers of breathalysers that comply to the Australian Standard AS3547:2019 Breath Alcohol Testing Devices. The Alcolizer LE5, Alcolizer HH4 and Alcolizer HH3 Alcohol Testers are now certified as compliant to the Australian Standard AS3547:2019. The SAI Global certificate showing compliance is available to download off the SAI Global […]

Police and scientists have developed a handheld device for frontline officers to test for methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine. The real-time drug-screening tool allows officers to test for “the three most harmful and commonly used drugs on the New Zealand market” while “working in our communities”, police said in a statement. A six-month trial of the […]

Kiwis are taking dangerous new varieties of drugs, with many being unaware they are doing so. Tests conducted by volunteers at festivals and other events last summer found about 30 per cent of the drugs taken by those who offered samples did not contain what their users thought they did. Instead many contained new varieties […]

American Airlines cancelled a flight from Detroit to Philadelphia after a co-pilot was suspected of being intoxicated. The pilot, who hasn’t been named, allegedly tested above the legal limit for blood alcohol content, according to a statement issued by the Federal Aviation Administration. Officials had reported his behaviour. The pilot was detained at a security checkpoint at […]

A motorcycling photographer was drunk and heavily medicated when he caused a teenage girl’s death on Wellington’s motorway, a coroner has found. Dee McMahon, 49, and Natalia Austin, 18, died after the Harley-Davidson he was riding hit the median barrier near the Terrace Tunnel on June 28 last year. A report by coroner Christopher Devonport […]

Prominent harness driver Blair Orange has been fined $1050 and suspended from race driving for five meetings after failing a raceday breath test at the Central Otago trots on Saturday. Orange had pleaded guilty to presenting himself to drive at the races with excessive alcohol in his system. The penalty was delivered at Roxburgh on […]

More than a third of cannabis smokers have admitted driving while high, sparking calls for random roadside saliva testing. A report surveying cannabis consumption, published by the Ministry of Health,  shows about one in 10 Kiwis say they have smoked marijuana in the past year. Of these, 37 per cent admitted driving stoned . Men were most likely to […]

What happens to me if I’m caught over the new limits? If a breath screening test shows you have more than 250mcg of alcohol per litre of breath, you will be asked to take an evidential breath test (EBT), usually in a booze bus or at a police station. If this confirms you are over […]

The family of a Timaru teen who died at a party is struggling with the fact their daughter is never coming home. Bayli Elliot, 18, died in the early hours of Monday morning at a Timaru address after drinking with friends. “The sudden loss of a friend or loved one is never easy, but to […]

Air New Zealand says it has no comment to make on claims that some air crew were drunk during a prolonged stay in Honolulu which saw 223 passengers stranded for three days. The airline is investigating pilots and other crew members as part of its inquiry into the failure of flight NZ9 to take off […]

Drink drive limits will be lowered from December, after new legislation was passed through Parliament last night. From December 1, the alcohol limit will lower from 400 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath, to 250mcg for drivers over 20. The blood alcohol limit will reduce from 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100ml of blood, […]

People arrested by police are likely to have drunk more and more likely to be methamphetamine-users than three years ago, a new report says. The latest New Zealand Arrestee Drug Use Monitoring Programme Report (NZ-ADUM) found the percentage of people who had been drinking prior to their arrest had not changed from 41 per cent […]

The Civil Aviation Authority took no action when told a balloon pilot had been too “pissed and/or high” to fly, an inquest has been told. It had also been told Lance Hopping, 53, had cheated on pilot exams and impersonated a CAA official. Hopping was the pilot of the hot-air balloon flight that hit powerlines […]

An intoxicated pilot was caught preparing to fly a commercial passenger jet out of Canberra Airport in Australia while more than three times over the legal flying limit. Skywest Captain Damien John Shelley, who blew 0.07 (0.07 grams of alcohol in every 100 millilitres of blood) at the 6am start of his shift, planned to […]

Getting high before work is common for a wide range of Kiwis – and employers are increasingly doing their own drug testing. The Global Drug Survey 2014, conducted in partnership with Fairfax Media, found that, of the 5646 New Zealand participants, 13.7 per cent of respondents had in the past year taken drugs, including alcohol, […]

Alarm over extent of workplace drug problem The extent and cost of drugs affecting the workplace and work output has raised the alarm with the Employers and Manufacturers Association. ​Over half of the workplaces responding to a recent EMA survey* said they have had to take disciplinary action with an employee over a drugs issue. […]

Christchurch dairy owners are rushing to offload their K2 stock before a substance ban comes into effect at midnight – including two caught by police selling to someone under age. Sergeant Bevan Seal said diaries were offering discounts on the normal $20 price – including $15 a packet or two for $25 deals. The ban […]