MINERS TURN TO SPEED TO BEAT TESTS

SOME miners working in the Bowen Basin are trying to beat workplace
drug tests by using methamphetamines (speed) instead of cannabis when
they party.

Tropical Investigations and Security Service general manager Gary
Sorensen said miners had told him they have been "forced" to use
speed to beat the test.

This was because speed left a user's system in a matter of days while
traces of cannabis could stay in your system up to a month, Mr Sorensen said.

Tropical Investigations and Security Service trains health and safety
employees at a number of mines in Bowen Basin to carry out urine drug tests.

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) industrial
safety and health representative Tim White said he was aware of some
miners using methamphetamines in a bid to cheat drug tests.

Mr White said he was concerned about the danger this behaviour posed
to miners themselves and their colleagues.

"It's a pretty dangerous job," he said.

"Underground your working with machinery that weighs over 20 tonnes -
I wouldn't want to be working with someone on drugs."

Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drugs Service (ATODS) Mackay/Whitsunday
acting manager Danny Hember said people who took speed would still
experience a "crash" one to three days after use.