CANNABIS FACTOR IN FORESTRY DEATH

Forestry workers should have to agree to drugs tests, Hastings coroner Peter
Dennehy said yesterday at the inquest for a forestry worker who died in a
logging accident after smoking cannabis.

Mr Dennehy said the main reason William Wood died when a flying log hit him
in the Kaweka Forest at 7.15am on December 31 last year was because he was
in an unsafe position.

But the presence of cannabis heads, a cannabis smoking pipe and traces of
cannabis in Mr Norton's body went some way to explaining why he was between
two logging machines when a log snapped and flew through the air before
hitting him.

Tests showed Mr Norton used cannabis between 30 minutes and five hours
before the accident.

Mr Dennehy said a report by consultant Marcus Musson said cannabis use was a
"significant causal factor" in forestry accidents. It said heavy or regular
users of cannabis were twice as likely to have accidents as the average worker.

The report said 59 per cent of silviculture workers said they were regular
or heavy users of cannabis and 14 per cent of forest harvest workers said
they used the drug at work.

Mr Dennehy said it was obvious forestry companies needed to deal with the
drug problem in their industry. The suggestion was "very strong that
cannabis was a contributing factor" to the accidental death of Mr Norton.

"The report on the accident from Occupational Safety and Health recommends
all applicants for jobs in the forest industry should be made to agree to a
drugs test prior to acceptance for any job," Mr Dennehy said.