 "Photo: Sam Grenadier")
Illegal drugs often have severe effects on those who use and abuse them, but when it comes to the workforce, the consequences only get worse.
According to a study compiled by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to examine drug use within the nation's workforce, 8.2 percent of full-time, adult workers between the ages of 18 and 64 years old in the United States reported using illicit drugs within one month prior to the survey.
Bob Stephenson, director of the Division of Workplace Programs at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said drug use adversely affects the workforce and can be profoundly costly if not accurately measured.
"A lot of studies have been done in the past about the cost to society, but the biggest cost to society is lost productivity by lost wages," he said. "In other words, people who are involved in drugs don't have a job or they can't get a job; therefore, their contribution to society is reduced."
George Comiskey, associate director for Tech's Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery, said employees with addictions pose safety risks to themselves and others at work. It is important that employers look for signs of drug addiction and offer help to those who need it.
"Once they do identify it as being drugs, they usually want to help them, which is what we find," he said. "If they can get over their drug problems then they can actually come back to be better employees because they have a renewed sense of life and have better coping abilities to handle the job."
The administration offers a help line for employers seeking help establishing a program to help employees struggling with drug use, Stephenson said, and offers a drug-free program kit to help employers.
"It's not all just about trying to identify users of illicit drugs and heavy alcohol consumption," he said. "It's also about trying to deter it before it's present and to help identify it from a health and wellness perspective."
Employees between the ages of 18 and 25 years old reported the highest percentage of illicit drug use, according to the study, with nearly one out of five individuals within that group reporting past-month usage.
"They are faced with stressors they have never dealt with before," Stephenson said. "Increasingly, employers need to understand that young people are coming in to the workforce, and that it's very important to help young people be set up for success."
Also, according to the report, 5.7 percent of college-educated employees reported they either had been dependent on illicit drugs in the last year or used narcotics within the last month, compared to 9 percent of those with only a high school education and 11.2 percent of those without high school diplomas.
"Some basic demographics of people who would use drugs at work tend to be less-educated folks," Comiskey said. "People that have low paying jobs, maybe, feel like they're in a dead-end job are more prone to use."
The occupation with the highest reported incidence of drug use, according to the study, was that of accommodation and food preparation industries, with 16.9 percent of employees within those industries reporting illicit drug use.
"It could just be the 'round-the-clock nature of the job. A hotel business is a 24/7/365, which makes it a lot more stressful," said Lisa Stella, manager of a drug-free workplace program at Marriott Hotels.
Marriott requires pre-employment drug testing for all applicants, Stella said, but also tests employees whom managers suspect might be abusing drugs, especially after an incident that might indicate an employee's mental impairment.
"Employment status will depend on the circumstances of the test," she said. "Marriott might pay administrative costs for the employee's addiction treatment, but only if there was no prior accident or incident, as is often the case with random tests."
According to the report, 43.8 percent of the U.S. workforce reported having access to educational information about drug use in the workplace, while more than 58 percent of participants reported being aware of an addiction-assistance program offered by their employers.
"If somebody were to come to us and say, 'Hey, I have a problem with drugs or alcohol. I need help,' we will make every possible effort to meet their needs and help them get help," Stella said.
Returning to work can be difficult for addicts on many levels, but they are capable of becoming productive again, said Sandy Caro, a program director at Walker House, a women's addiction rehabilitation center in Lubbock.
"In my opinion, from what I've seen, the majority of people who come through here, when they're clean, they're some of the best employees and the hardest workers," she said.
Relapse is common, sometimes even essential, after completion of a rehabilitation program, Carro said.
"A lot of times, people go back and they mess up again," she said. "Some people don't understand that relapse, a lot of time, is a part of the recovery process. You have to learn from that relapse to move on."
Employers should not be hesitant to hire applicants who may have had prior problems with drug use, but it would not be unreasonable for them periodically to retest the employees in those circumstances, Stephenson said.
"I think that everyone needs to be afforded an opportunity to learn from their experience and to come back to work," he said. "That's what we owe to ourselves, and that's what we owe to society. You can't marginalize people because of their past experiences."
Stephenson said rising trends in the illegitimate use of prescription drugs concern him because such drugs often can be deadly, especially when mixed with alcohol or other drugs.
He said college students should look to the realities of drug and alcohol issues as they pertain to the workforce before habits are developed.
"It's very important early on to set themselves up for success, and one way to do that is to understand the work culture out there," he said. "Increasingly, illicit-drug use and the use of alcohol is not condoned by management and by coworkers. It is important they remember this as they step out into the workforce."
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