Karen Kitchen

Greater Cleveland is enjoying a healthy good-news rebound, economically speaking. The emergence and rapid growth of a strongly innovative biomedicine industry, the resurgence of the automobile industry, and an increasingly global perspective have all contributed to a much sunnier employment outlook in 2016. Employers that have created workplace cultures dedicated to fostering employee trust and engagement, companies Read more »

Heroin and opioid painkiller addictions in Cuyahoga County and surrounding areas have reached epidemic proportions, according to both the CDC and the Cleveland Clinic. Local businesses hoping to avoid the economic ramifications of a full-blown public health crisis will no doubt rely on workplace drug testing more than ever before.

According to the CDC, heroin usage has risen across almost all demographics, with the greatest increase among women and those with higher incomes. Between 2000 and 2013, when heroin deaths were adjusted for age, every region of the country saw an increase in heroin use, with the nation’s heartland seeing the greatest increase.

The name is misleading—and so are the effects. It’s not a carefully created synthetic drug, tested in a lab and formulated according to strict guidelines. Synthetic marijuana is quite literally a mixed bag, with side effects that are being logged in our nation’s emergency rooms and have life threatening consequences.

Last night, Ohio voters overwhelmingly said no to drugs. 64% of Ohioans (almost 2 million people) voted against Issue 3 which would have allowed the sale and use of marijuana for recreational use in the Buckeye State.

DIY drug test kits may seem like the answer to your human resource prayers, but think twice before using them to test your employees and three times before trusting the results. Though they are sometimes less expensive than in person laboratory drug tests, DIY test kits are also flawed in a number of ways, some Read more »

How far would some folks go to cheat on a drug test? You might be surprised. When users cross that thin line between recreational use and addiction, when they don’t feel normal without the drug, you’re talking extreme measures for desperate people.

On a second try, supporters of legalized marijuana in Ohio managed to collect enough valid signatures to get the issue on the state’s November ballot. Now they face another battle, because according to recent polls, the legalization initiative, known as Issue 3, is far from a slam dunk in voters’ minds. The latest survey done by the University Read more »