Our Drug-Free Workplace:

Partners in Prevention

Drugs in the Workplace

2010 Edition ©2006–All rights reserved. 20022400Business & Legal Reports Inc., Old Saybrook, CT 06475 800-727-5257 www.blr.com

Drug use in the workplace is dangerous. If you use drugs—including legal drugs such as alcoholand some over-the-counter and prescription drugs—they can:

• Make you feel able to handle tasks that are too much for you

• Make you careless and forgetful of important safety steps

• Throw off your sense of time, space, and distance

• Cause lateness and absenteeism, which increases co-workers’ workloads

• Cause crime on the job—includingtheft to finance a drug habit

Let’s be partners in preventingdrugs in the workplace!

Have you experienced the impact of drugs or alcohol use in the workplace? Consider:

� More than 60% of adults know someone who has reported for work under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.

� One in five workers reports that they have had to work harder, redo work or cover for a co-worker, or have been put in danger or injured as a result of a co-worker’s drinking.

� Up to 40% of industrial fatalities and 47% of industrial injuries can be linked to alcohol consumption and alcoholism.

� Workers who use drugs are 3.6 times more likely to have accidents.

The Drug-Free Workplace— It’s the Law!

Under the Drug-Free Workplace Act, our company must maintain adrug-free workplace or risk loss of major contracts. We could even bebarred from government work for up to 5 years! If that happens, itcould mean loss of jobs.

To avoid that, the Act requires that we all take steps to keep drugs out of our workplace.

This booklet will help you understand whatthe law requires of us and learn about thedangers of drug use on the job.

We will inform you of all the drug-relatedrules that apply to our workplace, includingwhether drug testing will be performed(the Act does not require us to perform drug testing).

The law requires us to have a written drug-free policy that includes:

� Rules that ban employees from making, distributing, selling, possessing, or using illegal drugs in the workplace

� Documentation of penalties for employees who violate company drug policies

� Reasons why drug use in the workplace is dangerous

� Information about drug counseling, rehabilitation, and other assistance programs

Partners in Prevention—Our Role

We must also protect the confidentiality of our employees.

If we learn that an employee was convicted of a criminal drug violation in the workplace, we must notify the federal agency that provides ourcontract or grant money about the conviction within 30 days AND either:

• Take disciplinary action, including firing, or

• Offer the employee help to overcome the drug problem.

Partners in Prevention— Your Role

The law requires you to follow our drug-free workplace rules.

In addition, if you are convicted (including a plea of “no contest”) ofa criminal drug violation in the workplace, you must tell us within 5 days of the conviction. If you don’t, we have the right to take disciplinary action, including firing you.

If we offer to help you with a drug problem instead of discipliningyou, you must complete the assistance program in a satisfactorymanner—or again risk being fired.

You can also help us recognize a drug problem by being aware of thesigns of addiction.

Early on, a drug user may:

• Overreact to criticism

• Complain of illness

As the addiction grows more serious, the user may:

• Become undependable

• Avoid co-workers

• Become aggressive

In the final stages of serious addiction, the user may:

• Become physically deteriorated

• Stay out of work for long periods

• Use drugs at work

What’s Your Drug Use IQ?

What do you know aboutdrugs? Take this mini-quiz tofind out:

True or False?

1. Marijuana is the most commonillicit drug used on the job. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

2. One out of six cocaine users steal from co-workers. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

3. You can get addicted to heroinafter only one use. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

4. If you have alcoholic family members, you are much more likelyto have a problem with alcohol yourself. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

5. Many people use both “uppers” and “downers.” _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

6. Sniffing inhalants can kill you. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

7. People addicted to painkillers are more likely to progress to moredangerous drugs than those whoare not addicted. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

How did you do?

Read on to find the answers to thesequestions and to learn more aboutdrugs in the workplace.

Illegal Drugs

The law requires that westrictly control all illegal substances. These include:

Marijuana (dope, pot, maryjane, weed, grass, reefer)

Marijuana is the most frequently usedillicit substance in the workplace.People use marijuana as a relaxantand, in some states, as a legal painreliever for certain medical conditions.But users can become so relaxed thattheir reflexes and judgment areimpaired. The effects of marijuana can last for hours. They include:

• Slow physical reflexes and reaction time

• Reduced coordination

• Slow mental reflexes, poor concentration, forgetfulness

• Poor perception of time and space

These effects can lower productivity, lead to poor decision making, and make it very unsafe to drive or operate machinery and equipment.

Illegal Drugs

Cocaine (coke, C, snow, fake, blow)

People use cocaine to get an energyboost. Smoking cocaine (crack, rock, freebase) produces a brief, intense “high.”

Cocaine use causes:

• Poor judgment and decision-making ability

• Rushing and inability to concentrate

• Feelings of superior ability at times of serious impairment

• Drastic mood swings

• Sleeplessness, confusion, and paranoia

• Fatal heart attack or stroke

For all these reasons, cocaine use at work increases thepotential for accidents and crime. For example, in arecent survey of callers to the national cocaine hotline,64% admitted that their drug use negatively affectedtheir performance, and 18% confessed stealing from co-workers to support their habit.

Illegal Drugs

Heroin (smack, H, black tar, skag, junk)

People use heroin to get a quickrush followed by a feeling of totalrelaxation. Heroin is very addictive,whether injected or snorted. Expertswarn that addiction can happenafter the first use even if it’s a smallamount.

Heroin use causes:

• Fluctuating alertness and lack of concentration

• Obsessive focus on the next fix—to the extreme that nothing else matters

• Exposure to hepatitis and HIV from shared needles

• Workplace crime to support the heroin habit

Heroin’s side effects can lower productivity, interfere with interpersonal relationships, and often lead to serious health conditions, including overdose, coma, and death.

Illegal Drugs

Hallucinogens (LSD/acid, PCP/angel dust, Ecstasy(XTC)/MDMA/Special K, designerdrugs, club drugs, rave drugs)

People use these drugs to experience hallucinations. These visions of things thataren’t real distort users’ vision of reality, such ashazards on the job.

Hallucinogens cause:

• Bizarre and sometimes violent behavior

• Confusion, loss of concentration and short-term memory

• Nightmares, fears, and paranoia

• Emotional disturbances, sometimes leading to mental breakdowns

• Panic or depression when drug wears off

• “Flashbacks” of hallucinations after drug wears off

These drugs can irreversibly impair mental andphysical abilities.

Legal Drugs

Although the law does not require us toinclude legal drugs in our policy, we still prohibit their workplace use. This isbecause, if abused, these substances can greatly impair yourperformance—and risk thesafety and well-being ofeveryone in the workplace.

Alcohol

Alcohol is a sedative thathelps people relax.Alcohol makes users slowand clumsy physically andmentally. And alcohol canbe highly addictive.Because of these effects,alcohol use in the work-place can cause:

• Poor attendance

• Decreased productivity

• Sloppy, careless, and incomplete work

• Reckless, aggressive, and unsafe behaviors

Alcohol use is also a proven killer when combined withdriving. Alcohol’s effects can endanger drivers and every-one around them, so never drink and drive—and neverdrink and work.

Legal Drugs

Inhalants(airplane glue, paint thinner, cleaning fluids, amylnitrate/poppers/snappers, butyl nitrate/rush, nitrous oxide/laughing gas, aerosols)

These substances are easily obtained chemicalsthat people sniff to get high. Inhalants can cause:

• Slow thinking and reaction time

• Poor coordination

• Dizziness

• Reckless or violent behavior

• Long-term brain damage

• Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome

Painkillers(opiates or narcotics, such as codeine, morphine,various prescription drugs)

Prescription-strength painkillers can be veryaddictive, causing problems long after the initialmedical condition is healed. Approximately 2 million Americans use prescription painkillerslegally each year. But in one recent survey, over 11⁄2 Americans used prescription-type pain relievers for nonmedical reasons.

These substances can cause drowsiness, fatigue,and dizziness, among other more serious sideeffects. An added risk of painkiller addiction isthe frequency with which users move to moredangerous drugs, such as heroin, when they canno longer get refills on prescriptions.

Legal Drugs

Amphetamines(uppers, speed, crank, ice, crystal)

People use these drugs to lose weight or to have more energy to stay awake. Someamphetamines are legal prescriptions.Others are illegal and may contain dangerousingredients.

Methamphetamines, in particular, are a profound workplace drug problem.

Amphetamines are highly addictive. They stimulate the central nervous system and canmake users:• Rush or push beyond normal capacity• Careless• Anxious and nervous• Moody and paranoid

In addition, they can cause a significant loss ofbrain cells—about 1% a year, which is equivalent to brain cell loss in Alzheimer’s patients.

Sedatives(downers, goofballs, ’ludes)

People use sedatives and barbiturates, such astranquilizers, sleeping pills, pain killers, and muscle relaxants. These substances slow andreduce users’ physical and mental functions,which is highly dangerous when operating machinery or motor vehicles.

In addition, many people use uppers and downers to counteract each other in a viciouscycle that often leads to overdose or death.

How to Get Help

The law requires us to tell you about thehelp that is available for dealing with drugproblems, such as help through EmployeeAssistance Programs, including:

� Individual counseling

� Group counseling

� Drug treatment and rehabilitation programs

Ask your supervisor or human resourcespersonnel for the programs our companyprovides. You can also visit these web-sites for information and assistance:

• Alcoholics Anonymous—www.aa.org

• Al-Anon/Alateen—www.al-anon.alateen.org

• Club Drugs—www.clubdrugs.gov

• Cocaine Anonymous—www.ca.org

• Narcotics Anonymous—www.na.org

• National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information—www.health.org

• National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Hopeline—www.ncadd.org

Remember, drug use on the job is dangerous for everyone. Do your part tokeep our workplace drug-free.

What Do You Think?

Use the information in this booklet to decide what effectdrugs may have on the workplaces in the cases below.

Case Study #1:

Bill is a forklift driver in a busy warehouse operation. He has missed afew days of work with a nasty cold. When he returns to work, he is stilltaking prescription-strength cough medicine with codeine.

Discussion Questions:Should Bill return to work while still taking this medicine?

Should Bill tell his supervisor that he’s taking this medicine?

Should Bill drive a forklift while he’s on the medicine?

Case Study #2:

Barbara works in a busy office and is a former Employee of theMonth. Lately she has been extremely moody. She’s been coming back from break times either ecstatic or depressed. She’s also frequently distracted and can’t keep up with her tasks. She left early 3 days last week.

Discussion Questions:

What could be causing Barbara’s uncharacteristic behavior?

What should she do about her situation?

What should her employer do about the situation?

What would you do if you were concerned about Barbara’s behavior?

QuizDirections: Circle T if the statement is true or F if the statement is false.

1. T F Using drugs is primarily an off-hours activity, so it has minimal impact on the workplace.

2. T F The Drug-Free Workplace Act applies to employers withfederal government grants or contracts.

3. T F Failure to comply with the Act can shut an employer out of federal work for up to 5 years.

4. T F The Act requires employers to have a written drug-free policy.

5. T F The Act doesn’t specify any requirements for employees.

6. T F The Act does specify certain drug-testing requirements.

7. T F The Act requires employers to cover both illegal and legal drugs in their policies.

8. T F Painkillers can be highly addictive.

9. T F Many legal substances can be used to get high.

10. T F Many employers offer Employee Assistance Programs, which include help for drug addiction.

For the correct answers, turn the page upside down.

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Answers

1.False. Drug use in the workplace is a serious problem. 2.True. 3.True. 4.True. 5. False. Employees mustfollow their employers’ policies and inform employers of drug-related convictions. 6.False. The Act doesnot require drug testing. 7. False. Employer policies must cover only illegal drugs. 8.True. 9.True. 10.True.

Training Verification

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