The Rising Problem of Drugs on the Job

FIRST spawned in the ghetto, drug addiction quickly spread to the middle-class suburbs, colleges and high schools. Now, in corporations across the country, the cloying whiff of marijuana in the stairwell and the hastily dumped syringe in the washroom attest to the rapid growth of on-the-job drug users.

In a General Motors plant in Los Angeles, undercover police recently smashed a ring selling drugs at lunchtime from a camper in the parking lot. In Manhattan, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. has dismissed more than 100 employees during the past year for using drugs. "Wall Street firms are scared to death about drugs," reports Ernie Odom, an ex-addict who has charged companies $200 for his well-attended seminars on drug detection. In Detroit, an assembly-line worker at the Dodge plant notes: "Guys are always stoned. Either they're high from pills to keep them awake or they're zonked on a joint they had on a break."

Pushing and Lifting. Attorney General John Mitchell estimates that one out of every 40 workers in the U.S. uses drugs illegally. A survey by Chicago's Industrial Relations Newsletter concluded that three out of every four U.S. plants with 50 or more employees have a serious drug problem. The addict's sharply curtailed job performance is only part of the problem for corporations. To support their habit, drug-dependent workers often become pushers and ensnare co-workers into narcotic addiction.

Addicts also account for much of the $2 billion worth of tools, office machinery and other goods stolen from corporations and stores each year. In New York City, which conservatively counts 50,000 heroin addicts, about 80% of the shoplifting is attributed to drug users, including some employed at the stores. Drug abuse is particularly apparent in the stockrooms of major department stores, says Dr. Mitchell Rosenthal, director of New York City's Phoenix House drug rehabilitation program.

Hardened drug users in business are generally in their early 20s and usually in low-echelon jobs. The ghetto black is still the heaviest heroin user but as his need for the drug grows, he usually drops out of the labor force. The number of white workers dependent on heroin is increasing, but the whites still tend to less addictive drugs, notably barbiturates and amphetamine capsules. Most users in industry turn on with marijuana, or pot; if nothing else, it can diminish their ability on the job.

A Hint of Quinine. Detecting the on-the-job addict is a much more ticklish task than spotting an alcoholic. The addict's symptoms--dilated eyes, shaky coordination, impaired depth perception --are not always obvious to even trained observers. Because most narcotics are illegal, company officials are cautious about accusing a worker of addiction or even examining his locker; a mistake could lead to a costly lawsuit. William Britter, security official at Western Electric's Los Angeles service center, says: "Most people will agree that employing an undercover agent or informant is the only way to get to the bottom of the problem."

In many companies, the personnel department rigidly screens applicants to discover addicts before they are hired. Manhattan-based Con Edison, for example, turned away 44 addicted job seekers in 1968 and 78 last year. Companies have recently begun demanding that applicants submit to a special urine analysis; in the case of users, the test turns up traces of barbiturates, amphetamines and morphine, which the body metabolizes out of heroin. The tests have led to a burgeoning business for private laboratories; some do several hundred urinalyses a day, at $4.50 each. Even these tests are not foolproof. If a specimen shows a hint of quinine, which is often used to cut heroin, the applicant can be refused --but he could have picked it up simply by drinking a gin and tonic, which also contains quinine. Another drawback is that the tests cannot detect heavy users of marijuana because it leaves no noticeable after-trace.

Corporate officials, many of whom once denied that their firms had a drug problem, are trying increasingly to cope with it. Last week representatives of 17 major organizations in New York City, including Atlantic Richfield, the New York Times Co., Manufacturers Hanover Trust and Chemical Bank, met to pool information on means of combatting drug abuse on the job. The Merchants & Manufacturers Association in Southern California has instituted a series of "shop talks" on handling drugs; the meetings have attracted hundreds of corporate officials.

So far, such efforts fall well short of the alcoholic rehabilitation that business adopted 20 or 30 years ago. Often companies refer addicts whom they fire to clinics or rehabilitation centers, where prospects for total recovery are dim. Public clinics and centers in New York City, for example, tend to concentrate on the needs of ghetto youths whose addiction is linked to deprivation and despair. The environment is often harsh for older, middle-class addicts and adds to their difficulty in readjustment. Says Donald Mahoney, a spokesman for New York Telephone Co.: "Seventy-five percent of our alcoholics eventually return to work, but our record of drug rehabilitation is zilch."

Some blame must be shared by the companies that summarily dismiss workers hooked on narcotics. Without income, the addict's chances of paying for effective private treatment are reduced, while the odds against his completing the program at free centers is heightened. One of the few firms to take an enlightened view of the addict's plight is New Jersey Bell Telephone, which began this year to pay disability money to employees undergoing treatment for drug use.

Eventually, business will have to take a more active role in aiding drug-dependent workers, helping to support adequately staffed treatment centers. Dr. Rosenthal of Phoenix House says: "Not until private industry realizes that the drug user is increasingly white, bright and productive is it likely to take a rehabilitative approach to drugs." The shortsighted effort to save money on rehabilitation may well prove increasingly costly to business in terms of lower output and lost careers.

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