Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

More P users being found out at work

Hawkes Bay Today
11 Apr, 2016 02:30 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Ten per cent of those who tested positive for drugs had used methamphetamine.

Ten per cent of those who tested positive for drugs had used methamphetamine.

Methamphetamine is being detected in an increasing proportion of failed workplace drug tests in Hawke's Bay while detection of synthetic cannabis has fallen away.

The Drug Detection Agency figures show overall positive rates for workplace drug testing decreased slightly last year compared to 2014 in Hawke's Bay.

Last year, 9.10 per cent of all workplace drug tests were positive compared to 9.81 per cent the previous year.

The data showed 10 per cent of those who tested positive for drugs had used methamphetamine, up on 8.2 per cent the previous year.

The proportion of positive tests showing synthetic cannabis use dropped from 2.6 per cent to 0.6 per cent in Hawke's Bay.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Ravensdown spokesman Gareth Richards said everyone was subject to a drug test before starting employment at the company.

The names of all staff were also put into a pool and could be randomly selected to be tested, he said.

Ravensdown offered free counselling to any employees stood down after failing to pass a drug test.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"At Ravensdown, workplace drug testing is a really important part of our safety culture where we work hard to take care of each other.

"And like many other employers in the Hawke's Bay area, we take that health and safety priority very seriously," Mr Richards said.

Justin Courtney of Silver Fern Farms said the company tested for a variety of substances in the employment process.

It also carried out random testing to ensure people were safe in the work environment.

Discover more

Rock-attack terror unrelenting

21 Mar 07:20 PM
New Zealand

Baby ate cannabis oil as her father bagged P

28 Mar 09:00 PM

Killed hunter shot while taking break

01 Apr 07:00 PM

Artists' work on show

11 Apr 03:30 AM

He said employees respected the drug-and-alcohol policy and programme the company had in place as part of its health and safety culture.

Silver Fern Farms has three Hawke's Bay plants - Wairoa, Whakatu and Takapau.

Other results from the detection agency for Hawke's Bay showed 80.3 per cent had used cannabis, down slightly on 80.7 per cent the previous year.

Figures showed 11.3 per cent of positive tests detected opiates, down on 13.8 per cent in 2014.

Nationwide, positive workplace drug tests increased slightly last year on the previous one from 6.14 per cent to 6.19 per cent.

Methamphetamine showed up in 11.8 per cent of positive tests, up on 8.1 per cent in 2014.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Drug Detection Agency chief executive Kirk Hardy said the methamphetamine problem was not new to New Zealand and there appeared to be a growing supply of - and demand for - the drug.

The trend was similar to the late 90s and early 2000s.

He believed the social impact would be a resurgence of "horrific unspeakable" crimes.

Mr Hardy said there had been a decrease in the overall percentage of positive drug tests in forestry - reflecting a behavioural shift to an intolerance for drugs in such industries.

He said the industry was very vigilant with testing and education programmes.

As well as preventing accidents in the workplace, the industry was addressing issues before they became a wider problem in society.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mr Hardy said the rate of positive drug tests was also down in the transport industry.

He said it was normal practice for transport operators to have stringent drug-and-alcohol testing and to have TDDA regularly present to members about the dangers of drugs in the workplace.

However, the proportion of people testing positive for methamphetamine was up in both the forestry and transport industries.

The Drug Detection Agency conducted more than 120,000 drug tests nationally in 2015.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

In the palm of his hand – the rise of a third top NZ men's shotputter

Hawkes Bay Today

'I feel aggrieved': 92-year-old online shopper's warning after supermarket meat purchase

Hawkes Bay Today

How new speed limits are making Hastings schools safer


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Premium
Premium
In the palm of his hand – the rise of a third top NZ men's shotputter
Hawkes Bay Today

In the palm of his hand – the rise of a third top NZ men's shotputter

You know Tom Walsh and Jacko Gill, but a third Kiwi could join them at the world champs.

16 Jul 06:00 PM
'I feel aggrieved': 92-year-old online shopper's warning after supermarket meat purchase
Hawkes Bay Today

'I feel aggrieved': 92-year-old online shopper's warning after supermarket meat purchase

16 Jul 06:00 PM
How new speed limits are making Hastings schools safer
Hawkes Bay Today

How new speed limits are making Hastings schools safer

16 Jul 03:49 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP