Drug policy researcher Alison Ritter told Guardian Australia earlier this month that already stretched drug treatment services would not be able to meet the added demand. WA criticises 'incredibly naive' plan to drug test welfare recipients in Mandurah Read more“Our current estimate is that we’re currently meeting about 50% of the demand,” Ritter said. And that … 50% is a conservative estimate.”The government plans to drug test 5,000 welfare recipients in Logan, Queensland, Bankstown-Canterbury in Sydney, and Mandurah in Western Australia. Welfare recipients will be referred for treatment after two failed tests, and risk having their welfare cut off if they fail to engage with drug services. A Senate inquiry into the government’s welfare reforms heard on Wednesday the department did not have specific data on waiting lists for drug treatment services in the three trial sites before they were chosen.

Source: The Guardian August 30, 2017 18:00 UTC