
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 6, 1991                   TAG: 9103060022
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

REHABILITATE DRUG USERS, BOSSES TOLD

Employers were advised Tuesday to be wary of random drug testing of employees but they can't afford to ignore what has become a multimillion-dollar work-place problem.

Random testing "carries a lot of baggage related to invasion of privacy," said Roanoke lawyer Clinton Morse. Companies using the procedure to detect substance abuse among workers also risk union organizing and employee anger, he said.

However, Morse urged rehabilitation of employees known to have a drug problem. Experts say it is most constructive to have a drug test - "to call them in without notice" - in a rehabilitation program, he said. Morse called this "an impetus to save jobs."

If you fire workers, "don't fire them for drug abuse but for violation of company policy," he advised a seminar in Roanoke sponsored by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

Another speaker, Susan McIntosh, a clinical laboratory specialist for Roche Biomedical Laboratories, said drug users have a record of four times as many accidents, 2 1/2 times the absenteeism and three times as many health-benefit claims as other employees.

The cost of testing urine for drugs may vary from $17 to $40, she said. If the test is positive, it is rescreened, McIntosh said.

Mark Derbyshire, co-director of Carilion Health Systems' employee assistance program, said substance abuse shows up first at home; "the work place is last." He said involving the abuser's family is crucial to treating the problem.

The average cost of 15 employee-assistance programs for substance abuse was about $12.65 and the most expensive was $20 per employee per year, according to a survey by the Management Association of Western Virginia, Derbyshire said.

Del. E.C. Eck, D-Richmond, said legislation he introduced in this year's General Assembly is aimed toward "catching people in the early stages" of drug use. If the user demand for drugs is eliminated, the market will dry up, he said.

He said from 65 percent to 85 percent of all crime is estimated to be drug-related.

Two of Eck's bills passed last year provide the death penalty for murder under the influence of drugs and establishment of an Anti-Drug Trust Fund Authority, a fund-raising body.

His latest bill, approved by the General Assembly and awaiting Gov. Douglas Wilder's signature, would give radio and television stations tax credits for using anti-drug commercials. Also, Eck said, he sponsored a resolution that would create a legislative committee to study drug-free work places.

by CNB