b'The Work-Free Drug PlaceMel KleimanI saw the scariest help wanted ad last year. I was scanning the local employment classifieds before a corporate training seminar in North Carolina. I swear, I wouldnt have believed this if anyone had told me, but I saw it with my own eyes. Right there, in black and white, a two-column display ad for warehouse people, that said: No drug testing.While good employees are always hard to come by, this kind of desperation hiring is a surefire recipe for disaster.U.S. government figures show nearly 6.5 million regular marijuana users and 1.25 million regular cocaine users44 percent said they had sold drugs to other currently in the workforce, resulting in productivityemployeeslosses of $7.2 billion annually. Substance abuse is also18 percent said they had stolen from their employer costly in terms of absenteeism, sick leave, and workersor co-workers to support their habitcompensation claims. Abusers are five times more likely to file workers compensation claims and two-and-one- Do you have a drug-free workplace policy? If not, half times more likely to have absences of eight days orconsider the fact that 71 percent of Americans who engage more. Nearly half of all industrial injuries can be traced toin illicit drug use are employed and 81 percent of large substance abuse. employers have drug testing policies and programs in After a decade of slowly declining workplace drug testplace. Where, then, do you suppose the drug users apply results, Quest Diagnostics reports the trend reversed lastfor jobs?year with more workers testing positive, particularly forIf you need workers so badly that youll risk employing marijuana and amphetamines. Although the total positivesomeone who only uses marijuana on their day off, youd better think again. Even casual users are a threat to 44 percent said they had soldthemselves, co-workers, and your business.drugs to other employees Stanford University conducted a study in which airline pilots smoked weak, government-issued marijuana results are smallof 7.6 million urine tests 3.7 percentcigarettes, and were then tested on flight simulators. were positiveit does represent a 5.5 percent increasePredictably, smoking grass resulted in crashes right after from 2012s 3.5 percent positives and it is the first increasethe marijuana use. More alarming, however, was the fact since 2003, when 4.5 percent of the samples found traces ofthat it also resulted in crashes 24 hours later when every drugs. pilot reported no residual effects nor any reservations about flying.In fact, in the past 25 years, drug use among AmericansIf youre concerned that the good employees you now has escalated dramatically and has become legal inhave will bolt if you institute drug testing, I suggest you ask Washington and Colorado.them to see if its true.75 percent said they had used drugs on the job The Gallup organization did a comprehensive survey of 64 percent admitted that drugs had adverselyabout 8,000 employees that included the question, What affected their job performance is the greatest problem facing the United States today? 12 www.mrca.orgMidwest Roofer'