Glenn Dobson: Drug Detection Agency CEO on the rise in workplace opioid detections

Opioid detections in workplaces are rising sharply. 

Workplace testing firm the Drug Detection Agency says detections of opioids like morphine and fentanyl has increased by more than a third in the past year. 

In Taranaki, it's recording almost five times as many opioids as the previous year. 

Chief Executive Glenn Dobson told Mike Hosking the stats will vary in comparison to wastewater, but they’re certainly a reflection of a subset of society.

He says anecdotally, they’re hearing a softening attitude around some drug taking.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Economy adjacent is of course our drug consumption, and there's
no real cost of living classes here. Apparently, opioid detections
are up thirty five percent, cocaine we are loving the
cocaine eleven point four percent up and West Auckland good
morning to you up four hundred and fourteen percent on
the cocaine.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Serious.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Glenn Dobson is the Drug Detection Agency CEO, and he's
with it's Glenn morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, good one.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
It min where's four hundred and fourteen percent come from?
They've all token up out out west?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Are they?

Speaker 1 (00:26):
What's going on?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
It's crazy, isn't it? What we've definitely seen at this
reported some real variations on a localized regional perspective. Obviously
we've got some spikes and opioor use cocaine is still
very popular, but certainly we've got some real variations regionally,
which is really interesting.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Do people swap just between drugs? You take drugs and
then you decide one day you're taking one and then another.
Is that how it works or not?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
I think the behavioral characteristics stay fairly firmation to their
likes and in the type of hw they get from
the drug and so on. The changes often come from
the supply side of things, and when there's a large
supply that changes that can affect demand and people's drug
taped taking patterns.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
From there, you do workplaces. Does what you see in
the workplace reflect what you may see in life? Generally?

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Absolutely definitely. Look, look, some of our stats will vary
compared to for instance, the wastewater stats in relation to
some of our metham venomine positives in this report is
slightly lower than previous times, but still quite high. So
that's slightly different from the wastewater. But certainly it is
a reflection of a subset of society. And anecdotically, we're

(01:39):
definitely hearing that there's a softening around attitudes around some
drug taking.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
What is Are we weirdos? I mean all I ever
read you read something like stuff or the Herald. All
you have see these days are stories about weather warnings
and how many drugs we take? Are we strange?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah? I don't know fore're weirdos. We certainly enjoy our drugs,
but we look, we're following a global tree into a
certain extent, and I hope you would use globally is up?
So we certainly throwing that trend, and from our perspective,
from tdda's perspective, it's around the rest that also creates
the workplace. We want people to get home safely accord
the end of the day, and that's the main thing, exactly.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
All right, nice to talk to you. As always, I
don't treat it lightly, but I find the whole thing pathetic.
I find it shocking, but I mean, what can you
do when out in west Auckland, cocaine's up four hundred
and fourteen percent other than fly out.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
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