BUSINESSES IN IDAHO BACK DRUG SEARCHES

As drugs siphon thousands of dollars a day from companies across Idaho,
hundreds of businessmen in Canyon County have turned to a no-nonsense
sheriff for an advantage over the dealers.

Even Sheriff George Nourse admits the tactic is heavy-handed. "It almost
smacks of Gestapoism," he said early on.

And the American Civil Liberties Union looks askance, wondering about the
constitutional implications.

But employers -- and the vast majority of their workers, for that matter --
seem to have welcomed the sheriff's deployment of his 11 drug-sniffing dogs
into parking lots and workplaces to root out drug users and eventually
dealers.

"We just had to resort to this to keep people who have drugs from wanting
to work here," said Christy Ramey, assistant production manager for
Aluma-Glass Industries Inc.

It was the rank and file who raised the problem of fellow workers allegedly
selling drugs on the job. In addition to the random drug searches, the
company has instituted mandatory drug testing, and there has only been one
complaint about the questionable legality.

"We slowly over the last 90 days were able to weed out a lot of the ones we
were suspicious of," Ramsey said.

She maintained that the county's reputation for drug problems seems to have
contributed to the difficulty of finding drug-free workers.

And that possibly contributed to Nourse's decision to offer the talents of
his dogs on the private property and parking lots of local businesses.

The effort has mostly yielded small drug seizures and misdemeanor arrests.
But last month, again at the request of the employer, officers arrested
three employees at the Nestle Brands Food Service Co. in Nampa for drug
dealing to fellow workers. The dogs then went through the plant and lot,
setting the stage for additional arrests.

Manager Gary Bogenreif said numerous employee complaints about the sale and
use of drugs in the plant spurred contact with Nourse.

In the last four years, more than 4,700 people have been booked into the
county jail on drug charges, and that was without the latest initiative in
the war on drugs.

Localized statistics on drug use in the workplace have not been reliably
compiled. The U.S. Labor Department estimates more than 10 million workers
are drug users who cost employers in Idaho and the other states more than
$11 billion annually in lost productivity.

Clinton administration drug czar Barry McCaffrey found in his profile of
Idaho that 24 percent of the state's workers have used illegal drugs,
although not necessarily now.

But McCaffrey did take note of Nourse's latest anti-drug tactic -- one that
has been greeted by many businesses with signs declaring "drug dogs welcome."

Amalgamated Sugar Co. negotiated unannounced drug searches into its latest
union contract. The initial search turned up nothing but a reminder that in
the future timing is important.

"We intruded upon the lunch hour of the people who wanted to get to their
lockers and get their food," spokesman Jim Kusterer admitted.