Drug help for adults called top priority

Lost productivity, violence cited during workshop

By Jane Schmucker, Blade Staff Writer

Most drug users are adults with jobs and families, but almost all programs
aimed at curbing drug abuse are for schoolchildren.

That's a big reason why the country is losing the war on drugs, Milton
Creagh said.

Speaking yesterday at a parent workshop on drug problems, Mr. Creagh said
drugs increase domestic violence and decrease productivity on the job, yet
the public outcry is to educate children about drugs.

"At what point are we going to say, 'Stop the adults!'" Mr. creagh, a
motivational speaker from Stone Mountain, Ga., asked the group in the
University of Toledo's student union.

He said 10 per cent of the work force has a substance abuse problem and
half of all worker's compensation claims are related to substance abuse.

A substance abuser is 2.5 times more likely than other workers to be absent
more than eight days a year and is onethird less productive, at an average
cost of $9,660 a year to employers, according to federal government
statistics he quoted.

To Mr. Creagh, preemployment drug screenings aren't nearly enough.

"They catch the fullblown junkies who cannot stop and stupid people who
cannot count," he said, adding that most recreational drug users know how
many days after drug use a urine sample will appear clean.

Programs from Drug Abuse Resistance Education to Prom Promise are aimed at
youth because schools provide speakers with a captive audience that is
harder to find among adults, Mr. Creagh said.

Indeed, yesterday there were 1,000 chairs set up for the program sponsored
by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the University of Toledo
Police Department, but only 40 were filled.

"I was hoping to fill this place, but we have the diehards and they'll get
the message out," said Charles Moffitt, agentincharge of the Toledo
office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

Adults tend to be a captive audience only at Sunday morning church
services, at work, or in jail, Mr. Creagh said.

He believes that if ministers and employers would do more to encourage
adults to shun all mind altering drugs, that more kids would stay clean
too. Many children are introduced to drugs by adults who believe that they
are save, he said.

"If you honesttoGod want to help the kids, then by God, you need to help
the adults too," Mr. Creagh said.