Chemically enhanced politicians

"We are going back to the Howard years when we were working crazy hours and there were people tending to use more drugs like wine or alcohol, or illicit drugs of course, and health damage and the problems of travel and fatigue," he said.

I am glad Dr. Washer has brought this to our attention because we need to hear it. We also need to realise we have an issue in Australia with relentless working hours and demands.It is not just politicians.  I do not want my politicians either drinking or on drugs or both. No, I do not. Long working hours and relentless demands do make you tired and fuzzy headed and they do contribute to higher stress levels and they do take a toll on your health because there is no recuperation time. I'd like to make it quite clear, though, that alcohol and illicit drugs are not a natural follow on from that nor will they bring any respite.If our politicians are turning to drink and drugs to solve problems then they are not managing the demands in a very sensible way. You do not have to drink and take drugs to manage. In fact you manage less well if you do. It is not a very sane appraoch to problem solving. If work hours and demands are a problem then they need to be brought out into the open. If they are causing widespread ill health then they need to be discussed. We do have a problem with workplace demands but avoiding dealing with it is hardly an intelligent way of going about it. So , if there are issues , then get them out on the table, rummage around and see what changes can be made to help working people, including our politicians, have jobs they can manage. Starts with the first step not the first drink.