Additive, Synergistic and Antagonistic Consequences

There are always consequences in life resulting from decisions made or actions taken. When that decision involves combining alcohol and drugs, the consequences as a whole are often greater than the parts. That is just another way of saying that alcohol or drugs produce reactions, but when used together the potential combined effects can be greater than those experienced when they are not mixed.

Employers managing workplace drug and alcohol testing programs should be aware of certain terms that are used to categorize multi-substance interactions – additive, synergistic and antagonistic. The types of interactions are due to the mixing of drugs or the mixing of drugs and alcohol. The drugs can be legal prescription or non-prescription drugs or illegal drugs.

Additive – Alcohol potentiates or enhances the effects of drugs so the net effect is the sum of the effects from alcohol and the enhanced effects of the drugs

Synergistic – Alcohol used with the drug creates a drug effect that is greater than the sum of the effects from alcohol and the drugs

Antagonistic – Alcohol used with a drug creates a drug effect that is diminished

The actual affects of mixing drugs and alcohol are only predictable up to a point. For example, it is known that hallucinogens lead to altered perception of the senses. However, the senses most profoundly impacted and the severity of the hallucinations is different from person to person. When alcohol is added, the variability of effects is expanded, making them even more difficult to predict. This means that the risks to workplace safety are greatly increased when workers take legal or illegal drugs and also drink alcohol.

Three Times Dangerous

Last year, scientists conducted a study on the effects of alcohol on drugs in the body. They reported in Molecular Pharmaceutics that alcohol could make some prescription and non-prescription medicines three times more available to the body. It accomplishes this by changing how substances and enzymes in the body interact with the medications. In other words, in some cases workers mixing alcohol and drugs are taking the equivalent of three drug doses as a result of drinking alcohol. There are over 5,000 legal drugs in the marketplace, meaning it is almost impossible to learn every possible type of interaction that may occur.1

Of course, illegal drugs are often even more potentially hazardous for a lot of reasons, like the fact they have an unknown chemical composition due to lack of controls. No one really knows for sure what is being ingested when taking street drugs. There are some known likely interactions though, and they can seriously affect the ability of workers to remain alert, coordinated, and functional.

For example, alcohol increases the sedative effect of marijuana and opiates. Alcohol can increase the absorption rate of benzodiazepines, while also intensifying the depressant effect of the drugs on the Central Nervous System (CNS). The worker will likely experience a delayed reaction time, poor coordination, impaired memory, and aggression. Alcohol mixed with opiates like heroin can also increase the depressant effects on the CNS. Mixing barbiturates and alcohol creates a high potential for overdose because both substances can seriously depress the CNS, lowering consciousness. The additive effect means that the combined effects of alcohol and sedatives on the CNS are greater than the effects of each of the substances alone. Workers drinking alcohol and taking legal anti-anxiety, anti-depressants or muscle relaxants are more likely to get sleepy and dizzy, increasing the risk of having a work accident.2 Clearly, it is important to test workers for multiple drugs and alcohol.

Unpredictable Results Threaten Workplace Safety

In many cases, the results of mixing alcohol and drugs are just not predictable. Alcohol and benzodiazepines or opioids can lead to an additive or synergistic effect. It simply depends on the person. Alcohol mixed with cocaine can have an antagonistic or additive affect. In addition, stimulant drugs can lead to increased drinking because they mask the effects of alcohol. A person may not recognize how drunk he or she is getting and will continue drinking. Alcohol mixed with methamphetamine masks the effects of meth, making the person more likely to overdose on the drug.

Alcohol affects the way medications are metabolised, and mixing any drugs and alcohol is always dangerous. Drug and alcohol testing performed in the workplace is the only way to effectively maintain a substance free facility. The growing number of people combining drugs and alcohol (polydrug use) means it is important to do both types of testing.

CMM Technology (http://cmm.com.au/) offers employers a wide range of alcohol and drug testing equipment and testing kits to cover all types of work locations. They include breathalyzer, the Lion Alcoblow, saliva drug tests, urine drug test, and many others.

This article has been taken from http://cmm.com.au/articles/?p=3186

Taking Advice with Class

Taking advice with class and dignity is extremely hard to do. Why is it so difficult? Mostly, it is hard because you are likely to slide off in one of two directions, rather than staying the straight course of classiness.

The first road of error is, of course, in not being able to take advice to any useful extent. While a person, not being overly sensitive, can see the error of their ways, it may be really difficult for them to not take it personally or to not see it as something which they need to really self deprecate on. This is unfortunate, since self discovery can be an enjoyable experience if it is not accompanied by self condemnation.

The second road of error is in not being able to discern between good and bad advice. With good advice, the mistake is made in pretending to listen or to be about to follow it, but dismissing it as something which doesn’t apply to you. With bad advice, the mistake is in accepting all advice is good and proper and constantly being blown around by the wind this way and that way. It takes a lot of stupidity and lack of life experience and lack of discernment to be that unable to tell the difference between good and bad advice. You must be able to determine what news and information you will follow, and what does not apply to your specifically or to your circumstances objectively.

Companies pay a lot to find employees who are this level headed.

Unfortunately, sometimes idiots slip through the cracks. When this happens, it opens up the solid workplace to people who have no qualms about bending the rules a little more and more each day, and then break them altogether. The final result will be an individual who feels okay with defrauding the company and lying to your face, still thinking of it as “bending the truth” a little bit.

Employee drug testing has eliminated the majority of these employees, since irresponsibility goes hand in hand with addiction and other forms of self destruction. That is why CMM Technology provides drug test kits and LifeLoc FC10 to your company and to businesses all over Australia, so that your screening tests are the highest quality available. You want your staff to be fit for duty and you want them to be able to take advice with class. Help them with their objectives and with yours.

This article has been taken from http://cmm.com.au/articles/?p=3175

High Energy Workout when Motivation is Low

Often, large companies employ the use of an exercise room so that employees can exercise and stay fit during, before, or after the work day. When motivation is low, this is one of the best ways to vamp it back up again. High energy workout is great for raising motivation for a couple of reasons.

First, it helps employees who are in danger of not being fit for duty. Rather than utilizing their body’s natural endorphins, they may be tempted to abuse illicit drugs during or prior to working, and this can put your company assets and your other employees and even customers at risk. Working out in a company gym is great for producing natural endorphins and hormones within the body, rather than relying upon illicit drugs to create this effect. It gives employees who are frustrated or stressed or in any way afraid a place to go to and work on their bodies and their internal chemical structure. It is more helpful than many people think, since it is not just exercise, but it is a way to chemically, even molecularly, alter both the body and the mind, making them both fit and active and strong.

Second, when motivation is low at work, it is often because of a lack of challenge or a lack of change. While work, by default, changes over time, long periods of repetition can make an individual feel unchallenged and listless. High energy workouts are perfect for these times in between challenges when someone can feel unmotivated. They force an individual to feel the challenge of the work, without needing to change jobs every two or three years. This, in turn, lowers employee turnover, which is more cost effective for the company.

CMM Technology also brings a third element to motivation. Testing for illicit drugs or alcohol in the workplace is great for detecting employees who have given up their desire to improve and hone their skills. Our oral fluid drug test and our recalibration service are both highlights of our company. We are proud of what we do for morale. Call us today.

 This article has been taken from http://cmm.com.au/articles/?p=3152

Gearing Up in the Morning

When a business gears up in the morning, it must go through a regimen to attach yesterday’s data with today’s goals. In large, well run companies, this regimen is systematised and employees do a daily morning routine when they come in for work. They check everything for news or updates, such as their email or Skype accounts, they work through any leftover data or tasks that were part of the previous work day, they have their morning meetings and look for everyone who they know and greet them, and they set up their work for that day.

Gearing up in the morning is part of everyone’s daily schedule and regular activities. It is a ritual and necessary preparation for the day, getting clothed, washing the body, updating the mind with morning news, looking at the day’s tasks, and so on. Now, this preparation is part of employee drug testing. When companies implement screening tests to see if their workers are fit for duty, they are employing a preparation or getting ready technique. They are preparing their office or jobsite or other type of workplace for the day’s activities, and they are doing so by making sure that all of their employees are clean and drug free. This is necessary to the survival of the business. This is necessary to the survival of your employees’ jobs. If one, even just one, of them is affected by alcohol or illicit drugs, then they are putting themselves and all of their coworkers and anyone around them in danger. They are defrauding the company as a whole, and are a loss to your assets specifically. If left untested, employees can act any way they like or do anything they like, and they do not have to answer for their actions and they do not have to take responsibility for them.

That is a dangerous situation to have.

CMM Technology provides drug test kits to businesses throughout Australia, as well as offering breathalyzer devices and recalibration services to these companies as well. That is an excellent way to gear up in the morning. That is an excellent way to prepare for future success. Call CMM Technology today.

This article has been taken from http://cmm.com.au/articles/?p=3147

Control Temperament

Temperament is a person’s inherent nature regarding themselves and the world. It is not so much their personality as their more primal nature. It depicts who they are underneath their public persona and underneath the attitude which they show in their private lives.

Controlling temperament in your employees is really important for one reason. Underneath the professional veneer, there are many different types of temperaments and people are not always what they seem to be. It is this exact fact which has led many scientists to try studying humans on a bit more of a statistical basis. If humans can be broken down into a complex system of various predictable patterns, then surely behavior can be predicted and many employees can be vetted by simply having them take a test.

Of course, this is not entirely possible to do with our current technology. The vast mix of humans and behaviors and histories and patterns give this task such an impossible goal, and whoever is implementing the tests such a degree of arrogance over his or her fellow man, that simpler means are necessary.

This is why employee drug testing is so popular today. It is used over and over again by various companies to deduce who is abusing drugs and alcohol in the workplace and who is clean. This, after all, can be scientifically deduced, as opposed to the crazy personality quiz given above.

CMM Technology provides the drug test equipment and personal breathalyzer devices to accomplish such lofty goals. In fact, our whole purpose is to make business in Australia more efficient and more effective. How can you do business when such specific, yet dangerous, questions about your employees are left open ended? You must have this data. You must be able to control the temperament, if not the personality, of all of your employees. To this end, we have even designed drug test kits which have built adulterant tests to check for cheating. Our oral fluid drug test is especially popular, since it does not involve going to the toilets to conduct the test. To find out more about our urine drug test, too, call CMM Technology today.

This article has been taken from http://cmm.com.au/articles/?p=3141

Assurance against Adulterants

Adulterants are effects which can mess up a smoothly running system, like urine drug tests. Working with adulterants can help any person understand the effect that they can have upon this smoothly operating system. Thankfully, CMM Technology provides urine drug tests which are able to detect adulterants, which is not something which every drug test can do. Sometimes, companies give a certain limit on the number of times which employees can abuse drugs, but in Australia, under the ‘Duty of Care’ laws, businesses are responsible for employees who become intoxicated or high while on the job and then cause an accident, even if it is right after leaving work. At this point, the business must spend time and money to insure that employees who are under the influence are driven home.

Talk about a costly decision, one way or the other. You must find a replacement, but the employee in question has already replaced themselves with someone who will take their own job seriously.

It is this attention to detail which defines a great company. Your employees must be fit for duty. Alcohol tests define a certain necessary parameter on the abuse of AOD, alcohol and other drugs. Something like a breathalyser test can be really handy for a company, and we at CMM Technology also provide a breathalyser recalibration service. Urine drug test is popular, though saliva drug tests are becoming increasingly popular. Screening tests must have a certain amount of validity, not only with the tests but with the company distributing these tests, and that is why we are so proud of our reputation. Try our ToxSure saliva drug test if you are looking for some high quality saliva drug test options. It is important to remember that we at CMM Technology only distribute the best equipment to companies, and we want to make sure that you are using our equipment, and not someone else’s inferior drug test equipment. For more information about ordering from us, call us today. 

This article has been taken from http://cmm.com.au/articles/?p=3093

Lance Armstrong Proves Drug Testing Works

Reading brief news reports about the doping case involving Lance Armstrong, a world champion cyclist, has raised a lot of questions about drug testing. The reality is that the Armstrong situation proves that drug testing is highly effective. How can that be when he was using drugs, but passing drug tests? Armstrong went to almost unbelievable extremes to bypass testing procedures, proving that the accuracy of drug testing was something to fear for anyone intent on cheating the system. Once the full story was revealed, the incredible lengths that Armstrong had to go through to deceive the drug testing system proves to employers that current drug testing methods are highly accurate and bypassing them, especially for years, takes a level of extensive planning, effort and collusion that the vast majority of workers would not, or could not, pull off.

For anyone not familiar with the Armstrong situation, the story is disturbing and farcical at the same time. Armstrong was a hero to many as a seven time winner of the Tour de France and as a cancer survivor. However, his career and successes were dogged with rumours of performance-enhancing drugs. Accused a number of times of doping, he always protested his innocence and pointed out he passed drug tests. For ten years, Armstrong continued to compete whilst passing drug tests and winning cycling races. If that is all that is known about the situation, it would appear that drug testing is not successful. However, there is much more to the story.

Wrong Kind of Teamwork

In its final report, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said that Armstrong was, in effect, heading a sophisticated and professionalised doping program in the cycling sport. The extent to which Armstrong went to disguise his use of drugs is disturbing. However, even more disturbing is the fact his success was the result of the wrong kind of teamwork. It took a ‘code of silence’ and elaborate ruses to keep Armstrong’s drug use secret.

Lance Armstrong became an expert in evading drug testing, but the fact remains it took the cooperation of a lot of people to bypass the drug testing procedures. In fact, it is a sad story of deception and desperation.

It appears that Armstrong began the deception early in his successful career. In 1999, Armstrong’s gardener, a man known as “Motoman”, became the courier who delivered EPO (Erythropoietin) via motorcycle to the team, whilst the team was on tour buses. Armstrong’s teammates were participating in the deception and using drugs also. Syringes filled with EPO and dropped into soda cans were delivered to the bus, and the team doctor would then throw them out the bus windows after the syringes were removed. This practice was followed by taking a concoction of olive oil and testosterone called by the code name “the oil”.1

The story gets much worse. According to team members, Lance Armstrong went so far as to store blood transfusions obtained from a doctor who knew what he was doing and why he was doing it. Transfusions were taken on tour bus trips, with the bus sometimes stopping in the countryside so team members could carry out self-administered blood transfusions. The team members would complete a blood transfusion and then inject a saline solution to lower the hematocrit level.

A Culture of Drug Abuse

Armstrong claimed he had been tested hundreds of times for drugs and always passed. The truth was he was tested 60 times over his career for drugs, and there are questions about the interpretation of the blood tests. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) asked the head of physiology at the Australian Institute of Sport to re-analyse 38 Armstrong blood samples taken during his successful cycling Tours. The results clearly showed that blood doping was a high likelihood.2

There are many important lessons for employers in the Armstrong case. For example, one of the primary methods used to escape drug detection was to elude testing. Team members would refuse to answer the door when they thought the out-of-competition drug testers were knocking. Armstrong utilised other anti-detection strategies, like waiting to submit required travel plans until the last minute and staying in remote hotels where it was unlikely testers would show up. The cover-up strategies included backdated prescriptions to hide corticosteroid use, trainer supplied drugs, administered micro-doses of EPO under the skin at night, and a host of other activities designed to hide drug use.

Armstrong had a culture of drug abuse within his team, and they knew they had to conspire to past drug tests. It took doctors, team members, managers and personal deception to hide Armstrong’s drug use for so many years. Armstrong and his team were an anomaly, and people can have faith in the system of random drug testing using state-of-the art equipment. However, there are lessons Australian employers can take from this situation.

First, random drug testing policies must be diligently followed. Employees scheduled for testing should never be allowed to evade testing. Second, using reliable testing services and laboratories is critical. Third, a random drug test program must be truly random. As mentioned, Armstrong and his team would administer the EPO micro-doses in the middle of the night when drug testers were unlikely to conduct surprise tests. Employers who run 16 or 24 hours shifts need to include all workers in the random Alcohol Test program.

Employers can have faith in current reliable drug testing equipment like that provided by CMM Technology (cmm.com.au/). However, the reliable equipment must be combined with well developed and strictly enforced drug and alcohol testing policies and procedures to achieve a substance free workplace.

This article has been taken from http://cmm.com.au/articles/?p=3083