Last updated : December 16, 2024
The misuse of drugs or alcohol can result in serious adverse effects on an individual’s health. Substance abuse in the workplace can be detrimental to one’s career. People who abuse drugs and alcohol in the workplace do not perform their duties as well as clear-headed employees. They are frequently less productive, and they represent a potential safety hazard to themselves and their coworkers. For the employer, substance abuse becomes an extremely serious matter when actual drug sales start to occur in the office.
Aside from the obvious legal implications, employees with substance abuse problems have a negative influence on the bottom line. Illegal drug use is associated with higher incidence of health issues. When employees choose to take illegal drugs, managers can expect reduced productivity, an increased likelihood of accidents and higher insurance costs. Casual drug use is costly, but drug addiction is a nightmare. The behavior of workers chronically under the influence of illegal drugs will sooner or later have a devastating impact on an organization’s brand image when witnesses by customers and colleagues. Recurrent drug use is difficult to hide from other people, and valuable personnel often resent having to work alongside people who are using drugs at work. Left unchecked, such situations can drive good employees to seek work elsewhere.
Although all illegal drugs impair judgment, no two are the same in terms of health impacts, human behavior and short-term consequences. Stimulants differ from sedatives, and reactions to hallucinogens bear no resemblance to the effects that amphetamines have on the body. Some drugs trigger a feeling of paranoia in certain users, and some give rise to inappropriate risk-taking in others. Cannabis or marijuana impairs memory in some people and gives them a distorted sense of time. Long-term use of it can render a person apathetic and unmotivated. Amphetamines, on the other hand, have the opposite effect. Users of stimulants like cocaine and amphetamines experience feelings of intense alertness. They commonly display signs of hyperactivity, elevated mood, rapid breathing and anxiety. Heroin and other opiates trigger an inability to concentrate and frequently inspire apathy and passivity in its users. MDMA or ecstasy is a drug that induces a feeling of temporary euphoria in the user. When taken with alcohol, it generates a feeling of diminished anxiety and loss of inhibition. People who arrive at work under the influence of ecstasy combined with alcohol can appear inactive, sluggish or utterly exhausted to their supervisors.
Failure to address a substance abuse problem in the workplace is by itself a serious disservice to the person using the drugs. Continued abuse of illegal drugs can lead to dependency, permanent health problems and sometimes death. Drug users whose habits have become uncontrollable often find themselves without the means to earn a living much less fund their addiction. Frequent users may fall into a state of denial with respect to their problem. The correct course of action for an employer is to address casual drug use before it escalates into dependency or worse. With the passage of time substance abuse problems become more difficult and costly to treat. A timely intervention is an opportunity for a substance abuser to understand the extent of their problems and the risks that they face. It can also save their career.
No employer should ever tolerate substance abuse on the part of any member of their staff. Initiatives to address alcohol and substance abuse in the workplace should include an unambiguous policy explaining the organization’s reasons for their zero tolerance policy. Organizations should disclose to all job candidates prior to commencing work that the firm reserves the right to conduct drug screenings at any time in the future even if it presently has no such policy. In this way, employers that suspect that one or more of their employees have a substance abuse problem can mobilize a drug screening in order to act quickly enough so that the afflicted can obtain the treatment and care that they deserve.
