METH ABUSE SOARING IN THE WORKPLACE

A couple of hours before going to work, Scott Chubb would open a small bag
and inhale a white, odorless, crystalline powder. The methamphetamine gave
him a quick high. At work as a waiter at Bennigan's Grill & Tavern, dashing
between his five tables, he felt jittery and frenetic.

For seven years he used the drug, sleeping only a few hours before his
shifts and sometimes not at all. He lost weight and looked gaunt. Dark
circles appeared like bruises under his eyes. A $60 bag of meth had once
lasted him all weekend; now it was gone in hours.

Then, in January 2004, he abruptly asked a co-worker to take over his shift.

"I needed to leave," says Chubb, 31, a model, aspiring actor and waiter in
Chicago who is in several recovery programs at once. "I needed to find
help. I was living a double life. I quit cold turkey that day. I stopped
using drugs, but it wasn't easy."

Methamphetamine, also known as speed, meth and chalk, is a fast-growing
illegal stimulant that has been tried by more than 12 million Americans,
according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Its presence in the
workplace has also soared.

The number of positive drug tests for amphetamines grew by 6 percent last
year, on the heels of a jump of more than 44 percent in 2003, according to
a report by Quest Diagnostics, a provider of employer drug-testing
services. The findings are based on more than 6 million workplace drug
tests in 2004. Meth is the most common type of amphetamine abused.

About 1.3 million people reported using meth in the previous year and
607,000 said they had used it in the previous month, according to a 2003
report from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"(Methamphetamine) is a big issue and an area of concern from employers,"
says Barry Sample, at Quest in Lyndhurst, N.J. "You can't necessarily tell
(if an employee is addicted). They need to feed this habit. They're going
to have ill health effects. They're going to modify behavior to obtain the
drugs by any means."

Meth addiction costs employers

Meth dealing and meth-related sales can also seep into the workplace. In
June, more than 200 law enforcement agents arrested 49 people at 16
companies associated with convenience stores. They were indicted on charges
of knowingly selling products used to make meth.

"Drug abuse in the workplace is decreasing, but ironically, methamphetamine
positive (drug tests) are increasing," says Mark de Bernardo, executive
director of the Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace in Washington.
"Methamphetamine can create a more violent behavior ... with anxiety and
paranoia, and workplace violence is a major concern for employers."

Meth floods a users' brain with dopamine, which provides a pleasurable
sensation and high amounts of energy, but over time, it takes a toll -
triggering anxiety, breeding paranoia and causing weight loss, tooth
grinding and tooth decay.

For many users, the drug acts first to improve job performance.

"Initially, it does increase performance and concentration, all the things
you want in an employee," says Carol Falkowski, director of research
communications at Hazelden, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in
Center City, Minn. "(Users) take it to function. It has broad appeal to
people who have too much to do and are too stressed. That's all of us."