Wednesday, 28 May 2025 11:25

Drug survey

Written by  Milking It

OPINION: New national data from The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA), a leading workplace drug tester, shows methamphetamine (meth) use is growing and making up a disproportionate share of nonnegative workplace drug test results.

The proportion of meth detections has jumped since the start of the year January: 13.7%, February: 18.2% and March: 24.9%

The frontline data tells a confronting story; meth use is more than a big-city issue. The agency says it is seeing higher proportions of meth detections in smaller regions like the Central North, The Lakes and Taranaki.

However, there is no data break down for rural towns. The agency says the issue with getting any more specific with rural data is that it becomes identifiable. Everyone knows who’s testing, who isn’t and what companies they’re using to carry it out.

So, for the farming sector, the days of finding out the level of drug use in their local patch may still be a while away.

More like this

Misguided campaign

OPINION: Last week, Greenpeace lit up Fonterra's Auckland headquarters with 'messages from the common people' - that the sector is polluting the environment.

Fieldays goes urban

OPINION: Once upon a time the Fieldays were for real farmers, salt of the earth people who thrived on hard yakka.

Tough trade

OPINION: Known for serious trade negotiations with global politicians, top NZ trade official Vangelis Vitalis also knows how to crack jokes.

King's Honour stuff

OPINION: The release of the King's Birthday Honours list would normally be Milking It's cue to moan about how agriculture, the backbone of the economy, had again been overlooked.

Free speech

OPINION: The Free Speech Union is taking this one too far.

Featured

Wilmar hands over US$725m ‘court security’ in Indo graft case

Reuters reports that giant food company Wilmar Group has announced it had handed over 11.8 trillion rupiah (US$725 million) to Indonesia's Attorney General's Office as a "security deposit" in relation to a case in court about alleged misconduct in obtaining palm oil export permits.

National

Machinery & Products

Farming smarter with technology

The National Fieldays is an annual fixture in the farming calendar: it draws in thousands of farmers, contractors, and industry…

RainWave set to cause a splash

Traditional spreading via tankers or umbilical systems have typically discharged effluent onto splash-plates, resulting in small droplet sizes, which in…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Misguided campaign

OPINION: Last week, Greenpeace lit up Fonterra's Auckland headquarters with 'messages from the common people' - that the sector is…

Fieldays goes urban

OPINION: Once upon a time the Fieldays were for real farmers, salt of the earth people who thrived on hard…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter