DOCTORS and addiction experts have welcomed news the Federal Government will no longer proceed with its plan to randomly drug test 5000 social welfare recipients as part of its Social Services Legislation Amendment (Welfare Reform) Bill 2017.
Royal Australasian College of Physicians spokesperson Associate Professor Adrian Reynolds said the measure would have subjected a vulnerable population to an ineffective, expensive and harmful drug testing regime.
“A drug testing pilot would have delivered an ineffective, expensive and harmful regime that would have hindered, not helped Australians struggling with addiction,” he said.
“Initially, the trial would have impacted around 5000 social welfare recipients.
“If implemented more broadly, many more people would have been affected.
“The reality is, over 200,000 people with drug and alcohol addiction problems cannot access treatment and more services are urgently needed.
“Drug testing 5000 welfare recipients would not have solved this problem.”
