DRUGS AND MIA, SMUGGLERS AND SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS THAT DON'T STOP A THING,
HEROIN IN A PILOT'S COFFEE.

This is drugs at work. But it is not the issue of a few years ago, which was
drug use.

This is about selling drugs, a far more difficult problem for an employer to
face and for co-workers to cope with. In fact, being under the influence
while on the job seems almost tame when compared to a federal agent posing
as an employee who stuffs his backpack with drugs and a fake grenade, then
breezes past the security guards.

It was shocking stuff to see on the television news.

It's not unusual.

"Work-free drug places," is the term Thomas Cash, former Miami DEA chief,
uses. Cash is now senior managing director of Kroll Associates, an
international security firm in Miami. Corporate America, he says, would
rather pay a $20-million negligence judgment than do a pre-employment
screening that would prevent the hiring of a drug-seller or user. Cash
figures that only 15 percent of companies do adequate background checks.

There were 13 million employed people who used drugs last year says the
Washington, D.C. Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace. And where you find
people using drugs, you find their suppliers nearby. "Work is a very popular
place to get drugs," says Nancy DeLogue, counsel for the Institute.

After all, DeLogue says about selling drugs, "it's a business."

Public agencies don't put workplaces on their list of priority sites for
ridding the nation of drugs. The problem is up to employers to resolve.

That's where it gets tricky.

At the Tarmac Pennusco Plant in Medley, more than 40 videotapes were made
last year, allegedly showing employees selling and buying drugs.

One worker brought the issue to management. The chief of security at the
cement-making plant did his own investigation, then installed the cameras.

A total of 12 people were fired, one was arrested, and one of those
committed suicide.

That worker was fired not for using or selling drugs, but Tarmac attorney
Joseph De Maria says, for refusing to cooperate with the company's
investigation. That violated Tarmac's policies.

The dead worker's relatives have sued Tarmac for violating his civil rights.
They claim the real reason for the firings was to boot highly paid,
experienced Cuban American managers and to replace them with lower-paid workers.

The family of Filiberto Herrera says he was strip-searched, sniffed by drug
dogs and possibly videotaped during the bust. They are asking for $20.5
million in damages.

His privacy wasn't protected or even considered, argues his attorney Arturo
Hernandez. He expects some of the other fired employees to press claims as
well. "It was a highly intrusive investigation," Hernandez said.

Did the tapes show people passing cash to each other to pay off football
pool debts or was it drug payments?

And did Tarmac, which randomly tests half of its employees involved in
transporting cement each year, do enough to rid its workplace of drugs?

Both sides in this case give the impression that they feel they've been wronged.

Meanwhile, the workers have been through a lot at that plant. The Norfolk,
Va., company says 10 other employees in Medley have come forward since then
to ask for help with drug problems.

American Airlines isn't talking about details of how its security works and
who gets caught or who doesn't.

What matters is not how, but that the job get done.

email: hbrackey@herald.com