CANNABIS PAYMENT FOR SILVICULTURE 'RAMPANT'

Rotorua: The practice of paying unskilled and untrained forestry workers in
drugs is rampant in "pirate" operations, a former Occupational Safety and
Health worker says.

"There is a large amount of cannabis payments in forestry and other
small industries. The black market is rampant," Mark Fielder, health
and safety manager at Waiariki Institute of Technology, in Rotorua,
said this week.

Mr Fielder based his conclusions on anecdotal evidence from forestry
operations in Te Kuiti and Northland.

Getting any closer to the problem and investigating further would have
put him at risk, he said.

Pirate subcontractors who paid workers in cannabis were largely in
silviculture operations - clearing, planting, pruning and thinning -
and used young, inexperienced workers, who were often beneficiaries,
he said.

"These people are living in small communities and there is no way they
are going to dob in their boss when they can pull in a few extra bucks
by either selling the cannabis or just using it for
themselves."

The revelation is damning in an industry that is one of the most
deadly for New Zealand workers.

The national average for workplace fatalities from 1985 to 1994 was
five per 100,000 people per year, but for forestry the figure was 121
deaths per 100,000, Occupational Safety and Health spokesman Justin
Brownlie said.

In addition, one in every 10 forestry workers was seriously injured
every year, he said.

Mr Fielder said the safety statistics for black market workers were
even worse.

"These people are inexperienced and untrained and especially in the
planting and pruning areas are working in a very demanding job.

"The risk of them tripping and falling is huge. They don't get breaks
and are poorly supervised," he said.

A Canterbury University study last year found 59% of 165 North Island
silviculturists and harvesters surveyed were regular or heavy cannabis
users and 77% had used the drug in the previous 12 months.