CLOSING THE LOOP/AGENCIES, BUSINESSES PUSH FOR DRUG TESTS IN THE WORKPLACE

Richmond-area business and law enforcement leaders are trying to take the
war on drugs to the workplace by persuading more companies to test their
employees for drugs. After years of lobbying by anti-drug groups, the
Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce, United Way Services and other
business associations are planning an aggressive campaign to put testing in
more offices, factories and job sites. In January, they plan to release a
model program that any business can use. It will be designed to work with
other anti-drug initiatives, including more aggressive prosecution of drug
buyers and a new state law that requires insurers to give discounts to
businesses with certified drug policies.

"Finally people are saying, 'OK, fine, there's a problem,' " said Tim
Bowring, executive director of the Metro Richmond Coalition Against Drugs.
"For a long time, no one wanted to be a standard bearer of this problem
because they worried it would scare off business," he said. "But what's
going to scare off business is if they come to your town and see you're not
doing anything."

Chamber officials believe most of Richmond's big companies, as well as many
midsize ones, already test new employees for drug use. The chamber hopes to
get smaller firms to follow suit, as well as to convince all businesses
that random testing -- from the president to the lowest-paid worker -- is
worth the extra expense of $25 to $35 per test. Additionally, the chamber
and its partners are asking employers to go one step further by offering
treatment -- and a second chance -to employees who test positive.

"This is not about, 'Let's find the folks who are using drugs and get them
out of the work force,' " Chamber President Jim Dunn said. "We're trying to
put in place practices and policies that will help the individuals and help
the companies. We're not going to solve the community problem if someone is
dismissed."

No one agrees more than Glo, a 47-year-old home health nurse who told her
bosses upfront she was a recovering heroin addict. They even stood by her
through a relapse. "By being honest, they said that everyone deserves a
second chance," she said last week after getting her daily dose of
methadone at the Human Resources Inc. clinic on West Cary Street. "But you
can't keep on having chances." . . . Dunn, along with Perry Heath,
president of United Way Services in Richmond, announced the initiative last
month as part of the chamber's annual Safety Week. The United Way is
charged with overseeing the development of the model education and testing
program.

The Metro Richmond Coalition Against Drugs, the Retail Merchants
Association of Greater Richmond, Richmond Renaissance and the city of
Richmond also are part of the effort and will help push the plan to their
members and to the public. Bowring, whose group has been pushing its own
Drug-Free Workplace program for three years, said it has been difficult
convincing executives that their companies should do more testing, largely
because they don't believe it's worth the expense. Also, even heavy drug
users may not show the signs at work, although relationships, finances and
other parts of their lives may be crumbling.

"I've had businessmen say to me, 'Tim, do you see anyone out there who
looks like they have a drug or alcohol problem?' " said Bowring, himself a
recovering alcoholic. "People really think they can tell by looking at
them. Great suit, great hair, great smile -- out 'til 4 o'clock in the
morning, compulsively doing crack cocaine. Can't stop."

So why the involvement now by so many organizations? Bowring credits, in
part, area police and prosecutors who have joined the fight, telling
business and civic organizations that drug-using employees directly
influence drug-related crime in the inner city, where many go to buy drugs.

Their premise is simple: Federal statistics indicate that nearly three out
of four drug users work. Threaten them with their jobs, and many will quit.
That will cut overall demand, which will reduce crime. "If we can get the
companies on board and we can implement these programs, employees [must]
make a choice -- you will either do drugs or you will work," said Richmond
Commonwealth's Attorney David M. Hicks. "If you really believe the biggest
incentive for a person . . . is keeping their job, you want to maximize how
you use that lever."

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Comey said he also plans to work with local
prosecutors to set up more operations aimed at catching drug buyers, rather
than dealers.

"Those of you who aren't cooperating [in employee drug testing], we're
going to [arrest] your employees [who are buying drugs] and we're going to
publicize whose employees they are," Comey said.

"There is a stick we can bring to bear that the chamber can't. They can
explain why it's a good idea [to test employees for drugs]. We can explain
in pretty particular terms why it's dumb not to," Comey said.

The chamber points to other benefits as well. According to the U.S.
Department of Labor, drug users cost American companies $75 billion to $100
billion a year in lost time. And the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services says drug users are six times more likely to file worker's
compensation claims than other employees.

But more drug testing, especially random testing, may not play well with
workers around the water cooler. Kent Willis, director of the Virginia
chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said his office gets more
calls from people upset about that than any other issue.

"It's not about the right to take drugs. It's about the right to personal
privacy, even in the workplace," Willis said. "So long as someone is doing
their job and doing it to the expectations of their employer, the employer
should have no right to invade their privacy by requiring a test for
drugs," he said.

Although the ACLU does not oppose it for people who could injure themselves
or others on the job, Willis said promoting testing as a way to stop
drug-related crime is over-simplistic and wrong-headed. "The Chamber of
Commerce and the U.S. attorney are trying to turn employers into the
police," he said. But, he added, there's little legal recourse for those
who oppose it. In fact, recent laws have encouraged it. . . . No single
organization keeps track of how many businesses test employees for drugs,
but there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that the number has ballooned in
recent years and continues to grow. According to the American Management
Association, drug testing among major U.S. companies increased from 21
percent in 1986 to 81 percent in 1996. The Society for Human Resource
Management reports that 65 percent of its 100,000 member companies test new
employees.

"Part of that motivation could be the sense that over time, as more and
more companies do it, those who don't do it are vulnerable to employees who
use drugs," said John Vallines, president of Trident National Corp., a
Richmond firm that administers drug testing programs for about 230 Virginia
companies. Trident's client base has grown by 30 percent each year since it
opened in 1991. Vallines said two major developments have helped spur that
growth. In 1995, federal law began requiring pre-employment and random drug
and alcohol testing for people in the transportation industry, from
air-traffic controllers and pilots to train engineers. The law affects
about 8 million people, including 7 million drivers -- truckers, garbage
truck operators, school bus drivers.

And last year, the Virginia General Assembly passed a law requiring
insurers to offer a 5 percent discount on workers' compensation insurance
to companies with certified "drug-free workplace" programs. Each insurer
may establish its own criteria.

A new federal law, the Drug Free Workplace Act of 1998, is bouncing through
Congress now. If it passes, it will provide grant money for developing drug
testing policies for small businesses.

Some insurers also have begun paying for testing. Since 1994, for example,
members of the Retail Merchants Association who have fewer than 50
employees and who buy group health insurance from Trigon pay nothing to
have prospective workers tested. The group has about 1,100 members. "It's
very important that our employees are orientated to their customers and
aren't on a mission of their own," explained association President Bill
Baxter.

"It's customer service, it's productivity, it's return on investment. An
employee today is an investment. If you get the right one, it's a wonderful
asset. If you get the wrong one, it's a terrible liability."

Elements of a drug-free workplace Policy: A published corporate policy
protects the employer.

Education: Explains the what and why of the policy to employees.

Referral: Help employees find counseling and treatment services.

Testing: May include pre-employment, random and for reasonable cause.

Source: United Way Services