Drug and alcohol testing in the workplace: prevent problems before they get out of hand.

• Author: Stomierowski, Peg

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Workplace managers in Alaska, a state with a reputation for drug tolerance, are paying up-front for programs to help identify applicants or employees whose drug or alcohol use could represent significant job safety or productivity risks. Whether it's testing, treatment or a combination, coping with the workplace effects of substance abuse can be as challenging in the Last Frontier as anywhere. Geography and resources here are a significant challenge in themselves; finding the most effective approach is another.

Alaska continues to have the highest reported rate of illicit drug use in the country, with marijuana and cocaine the preferred substances, and the workplace is not necessarily any more insulated from the effects of substance abuse than the home.

A $738 MILLION PITFALL

According to the state's Mental Health Board/Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, substance abuse costs Alaska's economy an estimated $738 million in lost productivity, including premature death, impaired workers, inpatient treatment and incarceration ($367 million), accidents ($35 million), health care ($178 million), criminal justice ($154 million) and the administrative costs of social services/ public assistance ($4.1 million).

Leaders of local firms in the still pioneering field of drug testing--people like Matt Fagnani, president of Worksafe Inc., and Chris Williams, drug and alcohol program director for Beacon Occupational Health and Safety Services--while asserting that testing programs are holding the line or seeing a decrease in testing positives while household-use figures rise, continue to preach the work-safe gospel. Fagnani says he sees room for concern in statistics that suggest a lackadaisical attitude toward drugs among young people who comprise tomorrow's work force.

TEST THESE

The most common panel companies test for includes marijuana, cocaine, opiates (morphine- and codeine-based painkillers), amphetamines (including methamphetamines and speed) and PCP, says Beacon's Williams. He hasn't seen a positive test for PCP in a decade. Few companies test for such lesser-used drugs as ecstasy or oxycodone. Most personnel policies require an employee to notify an employer when taking medications that alter their ability to do their jobs.

Meanwhile, there always are workers who, upon being required to take a urinalysis for a paycheck, regard these programs as something of a nuisance, even if a sometimes necessary one.

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