Rio Tinto Introduces Policy Banning the Use of Medicinal Cannabis
I move —
That this house —
(a) condemns the recent decision by Rio Tinto to stipulate that none of its employees, regardless of their role or location, may continue in their employment if they are found to be taking legally prescribed medicinal cannabis; and
(b) reaffirms the principle that workers across Western Australia have the right to receive the very best standards of medical care, which should be guided by qualified medical professionals and not by corporate CEOs.
Recently, Rio Tinto changed its testing regime for the presence of tetrahydrocannabinol from a swab test to a urine test. The urine test is much more sensitive than the swab test, and that means that people who are taking medicinal cannabis will test positive even five or six weeks after their last use. Obviously, that can cause problems for people who are taking cannabis medicinally. The reason Rio Tinto gave for this was that, unlike for other medications, there are no reliable methods to determine a safe dosage of medicinal cannabis in a high-risk workplace.
This led Rio Tinto to state that its employees must first declare their use of all medicinal cannabis products and inform the company whether they are using cannabidiol-only preparations. CBD-only preparations do not have a psychoactive effect, as such. They can help people to regulate anxiety, are very useful for pain in general and can help with sleep, but they do not alter the way people experience the world in any way. The reasons people might use CBD-only preparations products are numerous. One reason people choose to go down that path may well be that THC is not allowed at their workplace. It was quite surprising that Rio Tinto decided to not allow CBD products. I am not quite sure what Rio Tinto is basing that decision on because we have not been able to find any decent science to support the exclusion of CBD. If workplace screening and confirmatory testing indicates the presence of THC, the worker may be subjected to disciplinary action, which can include termination of employment. That person may also be requested to work from home for a while.
I want to make it absolutely clear that the Legalise Cannabis Party as a whole, and its members here today, do not want individuals who are impaired in any way to be in a high-risk situation. We do not want them on the roads, in factories or in the mines. Safety is important. No-one should ever be put at risk. The issue here is that the testing method used is incredibly sensitive. Since THC is a fat-soluble chemical, it can last in fat cells in the body for quite a long time—for up to months afterwards. Even if someone had not had cannabis for a while and they were on a diet at the time of testing, the THC stored in their fat cells could have been released and they could test positive. The other way to test for cannabis, or any drug for that matter, is with a hair analysis test. The root from the hair is often tested as well. Once again, that test can pick up a wide variety of substances quite a long time after use, as well as a person’s nutritional status. It can pick up THC months after the effects of taking cannabis in any form have subsided. I read one example in which it was picked up years afterwards. That does not seem to be a logical way to test for that. If someone is really concerned about the level of THC present in a person because they have no idea whether they are impaired, which would be quite bizarre, instead of using urine analysis, they should use hair testing for ultimate results and accuracy.
What has been found, in general, is that when people use cannabis—if they smoke or vape it—the effects last for about four to six hours. For instance, people can use it when they go to bed and they will hopefully have a really good night’s sleep. They will then wake up in the morning six to eight hours later and it may then be another hour or two before they get to work and deal with heavy machinery. That puts it up to 10 hours after use, way past the time frame of four to six hours. Prior to using urine testing, Rio used swab tests—the same sort of test that is used by WA police and also on mine sites and in other occupational health and safety environments. Swab tests show recent use. It picks up use in the four to six–hour window in which someone may still feel the effects of THC. That means that if someone took it for sleep and then went to work the next day, they would be able to pass that test. At that stage, there would not be any obvious leftover effects relating to cannabis use; all the effects would have worn off by then. The tests are also quite easy and non-invasive, which is why they are used by the WA Police Force. If it is good enough for our road users to be considered unimpaired when they pass one of those tests, I would have thought that that same level of care would be sufficient for a mining company. There is plenty of research out there to support what we are talking about today. The Lambert initiative and other reports from overseas all refer to that four to six–hour window, depending on the method of consumption. We are talking about medicinal cannabis here; we are not talking about a recreational drug that people might use. This is a legally prescribed medicine. Patients will be given instructions by their doctor on how to use it. The healthcare practitioner will know that if it is taken at the dosage prescribed and according to instructions, that person will not be a danger to society by being impaired on the roads or in a factory. In the end, we all want to have a good night’s sleep. I can see the benefit of using medicinal cannabis in a mining situation because the hours that people work can be disruptive to their normal sleeping patterns.
Rio Tinto, the company that I am talking about today, tests for opioids as well, but it is more stringent in its testing for cannabis than for opioids. If someone tests positive to opioids, Rio will stand them down and the sample will be sent to a laboratory to test. If it is below a certain level, that person can continue with their work. This would be easy to implement for cannabis as well. Impairment could be tested through the Druid app, which tests memory, task switching, reaction speed and balance. If someone were taking medicinal cannabis, they could do that test every day when they come to work. That would clearly pick up whether they were impaired. The current method chosen by Rio Tinto goes beyond the Mines Safety and Inspection Regulations 1995. Other mining companies obviously find those guidelines to be sufficient, but Rio Tinto has gone beyond them.
A lot of things that also cause impairment in people are not tested for. I am talking about stress, sleep deprivation and even physiological conditions like colds, pain, menopause symptoms for women and andropause symptoms for men. Those conditions can affect cognition as well. Other drugs that are commonly available and may affect function are stimulants like nicotine and caffeine. Imagine a surgeon who is doing some work on the inner ear of someone—very fine work—and they have just had three cups of coffee. They may very well have a slight tremor. I wonder whether Rio Tinto is watching what its employees drink in the morning before they go to work. Stimulants can make a person’s heart beat faster and blood pressure go up. It can affect a person’s body temperature and can lead to heat exhaustion or even heat stroke. That is obviously pertinent to the mining industry. Once again, it can cause sleeplessness, but tremors are the main thing that could affect someone functioning in that environment. Sedative substances can also simply be bought over the counter. Phenergan and Doxylamine are two antihistamines that cross the blood–brain barrier and can cause sleepiness, drowsiness, dizziness and overall sedation. A lot of pain medications can also affect function. Obviously, opioids are tested for, but they are also commonly available. The issue with the use of some opioids as painkillers is that they are addictive and people may need more and more of them to help manage their pain. Medicinal cannabis is not addictive and people do not necessarily need more and more of it. I feel that taking away choice from people about the medicine they want to use is against their human rights. We should have a choice about what medicine we want to use. We should not be forced to use medicines that can have negative side effects.
Some other drugs can affect function, with statins being a common one. Statins help lower cholesterol. What is interesting about that is that the human brain is about 25 per cent cholesterol. It is well documented that people can have memory problems when they start to take statins. I saw this happen with both my parents and I have also treated quite a few patients who came to me stating that they had started on a statin for their cholesterol and had found that their cognition had declined because of that. Excellent research has been done by a lovely woman named Maryanne Demasi. She spoke about the negative effects of statins on people. Cognition is one thing that statins interfere with; the other is muscular function. Statins interfere with the production of coenzyme Q10, which is what muscles run on for energy. People who start statins often have a lot of pain in their legs, which obviously they could then take opioids for. I am sure that would really benefit their health in the long term!
Other medications that can have rapid effects and that are easily available are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, of which ibuprofen is one. They can increase the risk of bleeding, affect blood pressure and kidneys, and worsen heart failure, yet they are quite common. Medicinal cannabis might be a much more useful and less dangerous substance to take to help manage pain. An interesting fact is that drug-related deaths from prescribed drugs are more common than those from illegal drugs. Unfortunately, when that statement was first made cannabis was still illegal, but nobody has died from cannabis.
The reason given by Rio Tinto for moving to urine analysis was to ensure it was using the highest level of testing available; however, it interferes with the personal freedoms of its employees. It is interesting to note that all its staff are being tested. Even if someone has a job for which they sit down at a desk—they drive to work, come in to work and sit down at a desk—and are not doing any high-level security work, they could be fired. There is a double standard there because we do not apply the same rules to tradies such as electricians or plumbers—people who might come into our house—who may work in a high-risk situation installing air conditioners or electricity into bathrooms or wherever else it is needed in the house.
It has been noted that employees in the mining industry have a good income. They go home for their week off and they party. One of the drugs they party with is methamphetamine. Methamphetamine clears from the blood and saliva in about two days. Those people party hard and their sleep is interrupted. They go back to site and are fatigued and they go through a mini withdrawal. Several people in the mining industry have told me that they have observed that in the first couple of days their colleagues are back from the break they are fatigued and other workers need to pick up the slack. It will make a big difference. I have spoken to people who use methamphetamine and they also would like to be able to simply use cannabis while they are at home to party with—not that I am saying all of that is necessarily a good thing, but just that this is what is happening out there. Those who come back to site who are tired and sleep deprived and go through a mini withdrawal are a high security risk, but blood and urine tests will not pick up any of that. I thought that a company such as Rio Tinto would be interested in maintaining safety on its site, but this is something it is not picking up on.
If I were to go on holiday to a country where it was legal to use cannabis recreationally and then come back to work, I could lose my job. I do not think employers should be able to regulate what their staff do or do not do on their holidays, especially if it is a legal activity in the country they visit.
Impairment testing is the gold standard in occupational health and safety and, as I said earlier, that involves memory, speed, task switching and balance; peripheral vision can be part of that as well. That would ensure a very safe workplace and also a high level of safety on our roads. I am not sure why Rio Tinto has decided to go the way it has. There is a lot of research out there and employees should have the right to use the medication that they think will work best for them