Glenn Dobson: Drug Detection Agency CEO on the increasing number of positive cocaine and amphetamine results in workplace testing

Class A drug use is soaring in New Zealand. 

The Drug Detection Agency's latest workplace testing results show amphetamines are increasingly showing up, making up 32.7% of positive results nationwide – rising to 44% in Southland. 

The use of cocaine specifically is also increasing, with positive tests up 68.5% year on year and a 375.8% increase in Canterbury. 

Chief Executive Glenn Dobson told Mike Hosking that cocaine use on a global scale is up massively, with stats from Australia and the United States showing a similar picture. 

He says the significant increase in the South Island shows the supply is potentially fluid – suppliers moving around the country more than they have in the past. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Latest Drugs in the Workplace report. This is always fun,
isn't It shows cocaines on the rise. Positive tests are
up sixty eight percent year on year. Canterbury's up three
hundred and seventy five percent, So there'll be something weird
about that. Amphetamine type substances thirty two percent of all
those positive tests. Glen dubs and drug detects and agency
bosses back with us, Glenn, morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, goodboying, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
So what do these stats tell us the amount of
drugs or the type of drugs?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Now, look, I guess if there's a silver line in
this is at the actual overall detections slightly down. Good,
So we're seeing slightly drugs. So Willtech there's a positive,
Willtech there's a win, which is really good. But the
headliners that the trend has been continuing for a while,
and that's certainly that cocaine positive rate are up, as
you say, just over sixty eight percent.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
But having been swapped out from something else. So in
other words, I'm still taking the drugs and just taking
a different drug. Is that what's happening?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, potentially potentially. One thing where we know is that
cocaine cocaine on a global scale is up massively. Our
Australian stats show the same picture. And I was in
the States a couple of months ago in the talking
that they're cocaine rates are up hugely as well.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Okay, so the Canterbury three hundred and seventy five percent,
what happened there, that's an outlier, surely.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah. What we're seeing is that there's a real large
spread regionally, and that's one of the really important parts
of get this information out to the regions, so the
employers in different regions can see what their risks are
and what we're seeing in different regions across the country.
Canary Otago down the South Island there they had a
huge increase. But it also shows potentially that the suppliers fluid,

(01:30):
the supplies moving around the country more than what we've
seen in the past.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
And this is this is data from companies that you
get called into to do tests, Is that right?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, So this is workplace drug testing stats. We go
out there and do the drug testing in the workplace,
and so.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
These must be the same sort of people. I mean,
there must be. I mean, I've never been drug testing
in my life, and I don't work in an industry
that does do drug testing, so this is forestry and
all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yes, well maybe we need to have a chat with
the media and see if we can have that with
that as well.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Term I mean, yeah, yeah, some of the people in
the media, you'd you'd be rocked by what you'd find anyway,
as were Is this a specific industry, I mean, you
know the types of industries, it's not.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
It's specific in that we use codes generation industries that
we test for. But traditionally workplace drug testing is for
what we call safety sense of industries, often blue collar,
but white collar is testing a lot more as well.
So it is a good subset of all industries across
the country.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
How much of its Monday morning pick up from weekend
activity versus the bloke who's under the influence or the
person under the influence during the week.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
It's fairly well spread across the board. You know, you
do sometimes have your peaks. We see peaks come up
to Christmas season, so there are some seasonal peaks and
you come into summer and so on. But from a
Monday to Friday perspective, it's pretty much across the board.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Okay, good to talk to you as always appreciate it
very much. Glenn Dobson, who's into the business of drug
detection Drudge detection agency. I'm reading about the lavemasol this morning.
This has increasingly been taking the old Labama sool into
that into a bit of Labama sool so that was
developed in the mid sixties as an anti worming agent,
because why wouldn't you want to take a bit of

(03:13):
that ban for human use decades ago by the FDA
in America because of its serious side effects. But nah,
good old New Zealand like a bit of Labama sool
eh and go to work. Then you can complain about
the cost of living because you haven't got any money left,
have you.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
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