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Pompidou Group |
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Co-operation Group to Combat Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Drugs |
Strasbourg, 12 October 2006 P-PG/Ethics (2006)3
5th MEETING OF THE
EXPERT COMMITTEE ON ETHICS
30-31 March 2006
Paris (France)
REPORT
General reference documents:
Report of the 4th session of the Platform P-PG/Ethics(2005)9
Technical Report on Drug Testing in Schools
(Final version) P-PG(2005)3rev2
Documents of the meeting:
Ethical considerations in connection with drug testing in the
Workplace (M. Roelandt) P-PG/Ethics(2006)1
Drug testing in the workplace the issues involved
(R. Padieu) P-PG/Ethics(2006)2
Quality, availability and reliability of drug screening tests used in the workplace and Appendix (C. Ambroselli)
Drug esting in the workplace (first draft) (J. Rodrigues and L. Martins)
● OPENING OF THE MEETING AND ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA
1. INFORMATION ON DISCUSSIONS OF PERMANENT CORRESPONDENTS CONCERNING DRUG TESTING IN SCHOOLS
Brief discussion on dissemination of report and recommendations
Information from Secretariat on other Bureau discussions affecting future of platforms
2. EXPLORATORY DISCUSSIONS OF THE ISSUES RELATED TO DRUG SCREENING IN THE WORKPLACE
Presentation and discussion on papers by:
M. Henri Bergeron, Head of Unit Interventions, laws and policies
Mr Joaquim Rodrigues
Mr René Padieu
Ms Micheline Roelandt
Ms Claire Ambroselli
Discussion on way forward (preparation for 6th meeting of platform and 2007-2010 Work Programme)
3. Proposals for 2007-2010 Work Programme
Suggestions from participants for themes, activities, working methods and expected outcomes and products for inclusion in the work programme 2007-2010
4. Any other business
Opening of the meeting and adoption of the agenda
The Chairman, Mr Patrick Sansoy (France) opened the meeting and welcomed the participants, noting also those experts who had apologised for their absence. He requested observance of a minute’s silence in memory of Mr Angel Ruiz de Valbuena, the committee secretary, who had died at the beginning of March.
Mr Sansoy recalled that one of the objectives of the meeting was to reflect on the future of the ethics platform.
Mr Joaquim Rodrigues (Portugal) informed the committee that Mr Lorenço Martins would no longer be representing his country in the meetings following his resignation from his responsibilities with the Portuguese ministry of health. He hoped nevertheless to continue contacts with the work.
The agenda (P-PG/Ethics (2006) OJ) was adopted.
1. Information on discussions of Permanent Correspondents concerning drug testing in schools
Mr Sansoy, supported by Mr Rodrigues, said that Permanent Correspondents had had very little discussion on the committee’s report on drug testing in schools. Whilst this meant they had not tried to modify the position taken, thus respecting the committee’s work, the lack of dialogue was worrying.
Other members of the committee also expressed their concern over this and stressed that regular dialogue between the ethics experts and the policy level about the opinions expressed by the former was a fundamental feature of national ethics committees’ work. There was support for a secretariat suggestion that the committee’s role might develop into that of an ethics advisory group for the Pompidou Group.
The need to ensure a wide distribution of the schools report was stressed, in particular by making it available on the PG website. Interlinking with the EMCDDA website would also be useful. However, a much shorter presentation of the committee’s work was necessary for the autumn ministerial conference. This was in the hands of the coordinator and the secretariat.
Several participants thought it would be useful for one of the committee to present the work to date to the Permanent Correspondents in May to provoke more in depth debate possibly on the basis of a reworking of the recommendations into a real “opinion” expressing majority and minority views.
Finally, it was decided to ask Mr Martins, or, if he was not available, Mr Padieu to make this presentation but on the basis of the existing texts.
2. Exploratory discussions of the issues related to drug screening in the workplace
The committee heard presentations and then discussed in depth the papers related to drug screening in the workplace prepared by certain members.
The issues involved – Mr Padieu
There was wide agreement with the list of questions proposed in the paper which highlighted issues often ignored in existing legislations. Comments made included:
- The issue of driving, in particular professional drivers, was particularly important
- One question perhaps missing was that of how workplace testing is embedded in workplace drug policy
- There is a tendency to look at the issues from the points of view of employers and employees but not from that of the drug misuser
Workplace drug testing – Mr Martins and Rodrigues
Mr Rodrigues stressed this paper was a first draft; he hoped to include other countries and would also send the paper to the contributors for comment after the meeting. He also noted wide variations in the completeness of legislations as well as some contradictions between the texts of different countries.
Mrs Claire Ambroselli (France) drew attention to the pressure in the USA to introduce “rapid tests”. She also felt it was important to study systems for bringing new tests onto the market.
ELDD topic overview – Mrs Margareta Nilson (EMCDDA)
Mrs Nilson said that validation of the information for certain countries was not yet complete. When finished the legislative overview would cover the 25 EU countries plus Norway and would be made available on the EMCDDA website.
Ethical considerations in connection with drug testing in the workplace – Mme Micheline Roelandt (Belgium)
Comments included:
- the need to see testing as part of a holistic evaluation, hence “why and when should one test?”
- doctors have a problem over their own role
- there is a need to have a dialogue with employers to hear their arguments.
Quality, availability, reliability of tests – Mme Ambroselli
Whilst not pretending to be exhaustive, the paper brings together a large amount of information publicly available on types of tests, reliability, reaction times and sensitivities, etc, highlighting a number of key issues, and includes an opinion of the French Ethics Committee. The paper opens in particular discussion on the relationship between society in general and the drug using population.
A short general debate then ensued on issues to be considered further at the next meeting. In response to a question regarding the nature of the texts produced by the committee, there was agreement that whilst working papers were prepared under the responsibility of their authors, once discussed and approved by the group, the latter should take collective responsibility for them.
3. Proposals for the 2007-2010 Work Programme
The first task of the committee now was to complete the work on testing in the workplace. It was felt that this could be achieved at the autumn meeting and an overall report prepared for Spring 2007.
It was agreed that Mrs Roelandt would prepare a short paper containing a consensus opinion on workplace testing for the next meeting. This could be extended by considerations from the school testing work as well as setting some general principles deriving from the work on testing.
The committee felt that this sort of consensus text would be better prepared if all committee members were able to contribute to a bilingual drafting effort using an interactive restricted website. The secretariat was asked to explore the creation of such a site as an immediate priority.
Divergent opinions were expressed as to the interest of undertaking further work on other aspects of drug testing. Among the possible issues raised were:
- the place of drug screening within overall drug policy
- the objectives of testing in relation to care, prevention, sanctions, exclusion/integration
- are tests effective to attain their objectives and are the results used for purposes other than those announced?
- what impact does the existence of a testing regime have on the general population, legislation, etc.
- the use made of tests by health professionals
- guidelines on interpretation of testing results.
The committee stressed the necessity on any case to discuss their conclusions on the ethical issues of testing with the other platforms or professional groups and policy makers in particular with groups responsible for prevention activities in schools and in the work place.
They therefore proposed that a major conference be organised every other year around the results of their work on a specific issue or area to which other platforms and experts would be invited according to the subject.
Mr Rodrigues recalled that the origins of the PG’s work on ethics were comments made at the 2000 ministerial conference about ethics and epidemiological research/data collection. This was an area which would merit attention.
Mrs Ambroselli felt that there were a number of ethical issues worth considering around the relationship of drug users with their drugs and the place of the drug user in society and in the context of drug policy.
Lastly, the committee took note of the summary of the paper prepared by the coordinator of the research platform, Mr Richard Muscat, on developments in research in the field of neurosciences. They considered that the paper raised a number of ethical issues which would be worth studying, but noted that it would be necessary to involve a number of experts from the neuroscience field in the debates. They proposed to invite Mr Muscat to the next meeting to hold an exploratory discussion on this field in order to clarify issues they might address.
4. Date and place of next meeting
The committee expressed the wish to hold their next meeting in Paris on 5-6 October 2006. Because of practical constraints this has since been changed to 17-18 October 2006.