Civil Aviation Safety Authority Review Into Safety Benefits of Introducing Drug and Alcohol Testing

At last a study on marijuana that actually does assessments in researching the above report, I referenced this report on cannabis use and flying an aircraft from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) Cannabis and it's effects on Pilot Performance and Flight Safety, it's a shame a total shame that they came to the conclusions they did in the topic report from this basis but I'll go on more following quoting the major findings below:

• They found that there was a cumulative adverse effect of age, marijuana
• and task difficulty on pilot performance. Older pilots performed less well than younger pilots, b ad we a t h er re su l ted in lower pilot perform a n ce , and impaired perform a n ce occ u rred immediately after exposure to marijuana. In this group of pilots, a carry-over effec t of marijuana was not found at 24 hours post-exposure.
• They also found that in terms of marijuana effects on pilot perf ormance, there was no association between marijuana and a specific flight task or manoeuvre. Impairment in pilot performance seemed to randomly fluctuate across time. Flying an aircraft has been described as a resource-limited simultaneous attention and performance task
• (27). It is highly dependent on the capacity of working memory. Accordingly, performance at the flying task may be limited by either the speed of working memory or its capacity to process information presented to the pilot during the flying task
• ( factors overloading cognitive function and working memory (27).
• 27). On the basis of their research findings, they concluded that recreational marijuana users may not necessarily have any performance difficulties with
• complex human-machine interactions such as flying. However, if other performance-reducing factors are added (such as bad weather or other flying-related difficulties) then they may findthat their performance becomes significantly impaired, due to the cumulative effects of these

It's a total shame that this report was based on the study of first 6 pilots and then the second study only 10 pilots! With the resources the airline industry has they could have researched a thousand easy and finally given us some creditable evidence one way or the other but based on this and the main findings I see drug testing for cannabis a total witch hunt to take the focuss away from a proven risk in alcohol!

There was some flawed statements in the above report but as far as I've seen it's one of the best one's I've seen into actual assessment of safety performance and I would like to see this applied accross a large survey group to get some actual evidence but they might be scared too as the evidence given against health effects was all presumption and no real back up in proof.

• However, if other performance-reducing factors are added (such as bad weather or other flying-related difficulties) then they may findthat their performance becomes significantly impaired, due to the cumulative effects of these

Overall it found the recreational marijuana user was at no greater risk than other pilots that were not! It did find bad weather or other difficulties could effect the results of the tests but guess what it does to anyone and loads up the cognative functions of anyone!

So there is no evidence from this report to suggest there is a reason to drug test for cannabis unless suspecting someone is using on duty!

To get back to the main report this post is about REVIEW INTO SAFETY BENEFITS OF INTRODUCING DRUG AND ALCOHOL TESTITING FOR SAFETY SENSITIVE PERSONNEL IN THE AVIATION SECTOR.

I must say it is an excellent report and the people must have been paid heaps to write it up but it's flawed in too many ways to be accurate, especially when it comes to the cost savings they haven't factored in anything! The following picture and caption sums it up perfectly!

I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take to protect me!

Sums it up perfectly! We are making too many laws and focussing too much on human behaviour and in doing so effecting society dramatically!

I will focus on the entire report in brief following but one dramatic defficiency is in the cost savings they estimate (go into detail later) they do not factor in the cost of throwing people out of work and onto social security systems! If they believe they should not recieve benefits then they don't factor in the costs on society of the crime resulting so they can not only feed themselves food but also their habits and then the costs on society of court proceedings and jail terms for some of those given up on.

They also don't factor in the added stress this must place on those with drug usage problems that have shown don't effect performance (so it's not a problem to anyone but themselves) in the main recreational cannabis usage! And the effects that stress of maybe getting caught on their work performance and compare that with any percieved loss of performance from the drug use and you see the stress is the far worse denominator when it comes to marijuana usage. As shown in the (CASA) report Cannabis and it's effects on Pilot Performance and Flight Safety
Mentioned above.

But I'll start from the start of the report REVIEW INTO SAFETY BENEFITS OF INTRODUCING DRUG AND ALCOHOL TESTITING FOR SAFETY SENSITIVE PERSONNEL IN THE AVIATION SECTOR..

Ok from the start they are not concerned at what reason's the pilots are using drugs and they do not clearly define the difference between different types of drugs and the statistics which would be helpful as we would see clearly if one over another reduces performance and increases risk in a statistical sense. So therefore they are not concerned for people! Are the taking drugs for emotional, spiritual or physical pain? Once we have that information then we can start and determine weather it impedes or helps in performance and then we can also work on what needs to be done to help these people stop the need for their use if possible and if not possible if not effecting statistical evidence of risk then they should be treated as people and allowed to work, instead of being a financial and emotional drain on society.

Page three highlights that there is a dramatic knee jerk reaction to a couple of crashes involving cannabis, when we compare usage against accidents with the general population that have no drugs in their systems! They are lower rates than those that don't use anything!

They even focus on a plane crash on the aircraft carrier Nimitz in May 81 and comment saying there were traces of marijuana found on the bodies of six of the 14 dead personnel!

What stands out immediately is the knee jerk reaction and basing everything on emotion! What six people were the pilots? Not a chance! And to cap it off it doesn't even say the pilots had traces of marijuana on them which I'm sure it would if they did! So what a load of crap!

Sure the incidents highlighted with alcohol in the system can clearly be shown through statistical evidence to increase the risk of performance loss and I agree wholeheartedly with the comments and treatment relating to use of alcohol on the job!

Page Four highlights what I have been saying the social costs of drug testing have been totally forgotten! It proves that if people using drugs get jobs then they tend to stop using as a large percentage! With over 30,000 positive tests reported between 1990 and 2003, the majority were from pre employment testing 21,000 of them actually (70%)! So if we give people jobs they are more likely to give up drugs and get off the welfare system! Saving $billions!

But no they choose to deny these people the chance in life to improve their lifestyles and not rely on drugs in the name of health and safety! Well that's not healthy, especially when a drug shows not to clearly present a statistical or evidential risk, such as cannabis!

And they claim this is a success! On what basis? Yeah sure some of the heavier drugs do show to significantly impare people, permanently and alcohol in concentrations has the same effect but even then should we be denying these people the opportunity to find an interest in life other than drugs and be productive! Safety Sensitive Jobs maybe but then the definintion of safety sensitive jobs is way too broad and just throws people on the scrap heap without any hope.

Now further down they talk about substance abuse and that is a good point but what is abuse in their eyes is just pain management in many eyes and those people managing pain in many instances as can be seen from the dramatic increase in use after people get jobs is in a lot of instances financial from not working and social for the same reason!

And when you look at countries that have legalised soft drugs the use dosen't drmatically increase it actually slightly decreases so making laws actually brings them into the spot light and advertisers their use so more use it, financing the crime gangs and organised crime in high places!

Page 6 Goes on about the Civial Aviation Safety Regulation in the U.S.
Does make a good point that the drug rates are no differnet in the aviation industry that they wider community. And then it starts to get interesting and yet fails again, by claiming 22.5% of pilots survey felt safety had been compromised by by alcohol, drugs or prescribed medications!

Sadly it doesn't define which drugs clearly and classes them all as a single group, now we should at least have clear information there!

Again in page seven it gives broad statistics combining all drugs and alcohol instead of clearly identifying each one and the statistical data accompanying!

Page eight makes a good point we need to clearly identify when one is under the influence and when one has used the substance! Until we can clearly do that then the whole argument for drug testing falls down in a big hole in my book! And they clearly identify that people cannot determine the level of impairment on alcohol but then go onto assume the same for all other drugs! Sad failure there again to identify the differences!

I'm not going to go on any further as the report totally fails when you read through it and research the evidence given and even the evidence they use fails in proving recreational usage causes any increase in risk so to protect our community and improve productivity we need to think this out far more clearly!

And from a safety science point, if we are to be considered seriously we need to look at the entire communities health and safety and before throwing $billions at social security and hospitals for people using substance we need to look at the big picture and the benefits to societies health overall of ensuring their is an increased risk before stopping them working and gaining the confidence to stop using substances.

Sincerely
Daniel