BUSINESSES HEAR HOW DRUGS IMPACT THE WORKFORCE

MOULTRIE -- Seventy-seven percent of drug users are employed, and it is the
safest and most reliable place to buy and sell illegal drugs.

On this premise, the Moultrie-Colquitt County Chamber of Commerce is
bringing the Drugs Don't Work (DDW) program back into Colquitt County. The
Georgia Chamber of Commerce sponsored an eye-opening presentation on drug
use in the workplace Friday and how businesses can save money by participating.

"America is destroying itself from within," said Chuck Wade, director of
DDW for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce with experience as an undercover
narcotics officer for 11 years.

Since 1980, the U.S. has spent $290 billion on cutting off the
international drug supply into the U.S. That's more money, Wade said, than
all biomedical research -- more than cancer, more than AIDS, more than
heart disease -- combined.

After throwing these billions of dollars at the supply side of this
societal ill, the U.S. is no better off. In fact, the street value of
cocaine and heroin is cheaper than it's ever been, he said.