Workplace Drug Testing

DISTURBING TREND DETECTED: DRUG USE SOARS

Drug testing companies are noticing a disturbing trend when it comes
to workplace substance abuse.

"About six years ago, we only had a handful of cocaine positives in a
year," said Ed Secondiak, president of ECS Safety Services Ltd. "Now
it's almost half of the fails."

Jan Chandler, who owns Chandler Consulting Inc., tells a similar
story. As recently as a year and a half ago most of the positive drug
tests her company encountered were for marijuana use.

Now at least half are for cocaine.

Secondiak added that his company is getting many "double-positive"
results, indicating both marijuana and cocaine use. He believes this
is the result of cocaine addicts trying to ease their crashes.

And while addiction professionals have good results when it comes to
helping workers with a marijuana dependency, the same is not true of cocaine.

"We have a dismal record for dealing with individuals who may fail
for cocaine," said Secondiak.

"The drug's controlling their lives, and they just kind of disappear."

An even darker cloud could be forming on the horizon, he warned.

"For 2006, we had a handful of positives for crystal meth -
methamphetamine. Now it's not a popular drug in the workforce.

"My concerns are if we don't have education on crystal meth, that
could mushroom and all of a sudden we have the same problems with it
as we have with cocaine.

"We need education, education, education."

Secondiak would also like to see greater education when it comes to
marijuana. A concerted publicity campaign about the dangers of
tobacco helped reduce its use among young people between 1992 to
2002, but during the same period marijuana use doubled.

"We have a tremendous amount of education on tobacco, but we have
nothing on marijuana," he said.

Secondiak added that alcohol abuse in the workplace is another
problem we need to be vigilant against. Although the fail rate for
alcohol tests his company conducts is low, impairment on the job can
have "terrible consequences."

Chandler suggested that societal acceptance of drinking probably
allows abuses to go unaddressed for longer than is the case for drugs.

She also cautioned against making assumptions about who is suffering
the effects of substance abuse on the job.

"Addiction doesn't respect any boundaries, so we work with company
owners, senior management, field operators - it doesn't matter."