Are drug addiction and substance use covered by the DDA?
Some cases of addiction will properly be regarded as covered by the definition of disability for the purposes of the DDA. This does not, however, bestow any rights in itself, since a person with a disability of any kind still needs to be able to point to discrimination on the basis of that disability; and the concept of discrimination remains limited by provisions including those relating to inherent requirements of the job, unjustifiable hardship and the “reasonableness” element of indirect discrimination. (See for example the discussion in McDougall v Kimberley Clark by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal : even if the complainant there had been able to show their gambling resulted from a disorder this did not excuse them from reasonable work requirements.) Various addictive or dependency disorders are recognised in the standard psychiatric diagnostic protocols, the International Classification of Disorders and the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statist
