leaders for use.

The Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (CADA) yesterday announced a mandatory drug and alcohol screening programme for Board members.

Janine Lines, CADA's chairperson, said the new policy was part of the charity's responsibility to the community.

"CADA recognises that alcohol, drug and other substance abuse by Board members will impair their ability to perform properly and will have serious negative effects on the agency as a whole,'' said Mrs. Lines.

"CADA's mission is the prevention of substance abuse and it is our intention to put our message into practice within our own agency,'' she added.

The council uses education and community partnerships to prevent substance abuse and is now the first charity to introduce screening for its Board members.

However the Board members, all of which serve voluntarily, introduced the new policy themselves with the assistance of the Employee Assistance Programme.

But Charles Williams, a nurse-counsellor with Addiction Services, raised a "slight concern'' over the initiative.

Mr. Williams explained that as drug abuse prevention professionals, he and his colleagues sometimes risked passive drug exposure by interacting with clients outside the facility.

And he said it would be possible for such exposure to trigger a positive drug test result.

"How's that going to look?'' asked Mr. Wiliams.

"They have to be very careful that they don't put themselves in a position where they have to explain themselves.'' But Derek Binns, chief executive officer of the National Drug Commission, said the testing would probably be able to distinguish between a true positive and a false positive.

And he called CADA's decision "a bold move...which ought to be congratulated''.

But he warned the public that screening programmes "cannot, and should not stand alone''.

Dr. Binns was also reluctant to comment on whether or not the NDC would follow suit.