TO THE AMERICAN SLEEPERS WHO SUPPORT THE WAR ON DRUGS

A Message to Those Who Think The Drug War is All That...

... IT ISN'T!

Right now, $2,765,500 per second is being spent to fuel a war on drugs that has cost trillions.  This figure includes taxpayer dollars, donations to private organizations, healthcare funds, and percentages absorbed by other organizations not even associated with the war on drugs.  According to the 2006 statistics compiled by the United States government, drug abuse is rising steadily, despite reports from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America that attempt to indicate how effective the drug war is.  If you consider the earnings of the black market, the more money our society pumps into the war on drugs, the more money citizens use to buy drugs.   Consider the financial losses of a corporation who buy into the idea of pre-employment drug screening, the loss of a candidate who tests positive for drugs, the time of employees wasted on interviewing a candidate who is dropped, and the cost of drug users to buy from the black market rather than prescription medication, we would be able to feed the world's starving population 15 times over...!

The cost of valuable human life is enormous!

Because pharmacology is as young a science as an infant not yet fully out of the womb, there is far too much unknown about drug dependency, addiction, abuse, misuse, and responsible use.  But we do know that humans are an intelligent species known for taking risks.  If not for risk-takers, the world might still be flat, none of us would be where we are right now.  In fact, the majority of us wouldn't be alive.

The drawback here is not those who use drugs but rather those in positions who are not releasing information.  All across the world and beyond to the International Space Station, the most sophisticated network ever built -- a network that I personally helped to build -- connects everyone on the Internet with millions of scientific databases, but instead of releasing information to allow the flow of information, our society has suspended so much valuable data from the drug user community as well as from the general population.  We have patient care physicians who don't understand the difference the fundamentals of sleep disorders and won't even make the effort to do so.  Physicians who think that narcolepsy, a sleep disorder is somehow associated with a narcotics disorder!  There are high school students who know more than our doctors!   Now that's really something to fear.  Drug abuse is something to fear.  But it isn't going to go away if we just say 'NO'!  It's just going to prolong our ignorance, so that generation after generation we repeat the same thing over and over.  What we are doing by not sharing real information is wasteful, and waste is negative. 

The choice we have is very simple: either we educate our kids about what we know or we lie to them and try to keep them from hurting themselves only to find out that by doing so, we've just given the opportunity to someone we have no control over.  The choice we have is between giving our kids -- that generation  that succeeds us --  a life that counts or allowing them to die in disgrace.  That is to say: there will always be a percentage of humans who ventures out to new vistas.  We might not want them to, but that is their mission.  Do we stop them and impede progress?  Do we condemn them as we let them go and let progression slip away?  Or do we communicate with them honestly, everything we know, and allow them to achieve their mission?  The only way we're going to save lives and build on progress is if we use common sense in making that decision.   

Cause of Drug Abuse and the Drug Problem

How many people use drugs?

The federal government reports nearly 14 million adults currently use illegal drugs ("current" meaning illegal drug use within the past 30 days).  That represents an increase of more than 1 million users since the government's 1995 report.  This is considered grossly inaccurate since polls conducted have maintained dramatically different but substantially higher results.  One polls indicates 19 million adults living in Continental US (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) use illicit street drugs on a weekly basis.  Another poll shows that there are 37 million adults who should be using medication on a regular basis but less than 50% take this medication regularly. 

Then there are 11 million Americans who admit that they are "heavy" drinkers (5 or more drinks on the same occasion on at least 5 different days in the past month).
 

How many drug users are employed?

By some estimates nearly three-quarters of current illicit drug users 18 and older are employed, but it has been estimated that there are between 50 and 85 million employees who use drugs regularly and 10 million of these have tested positive for drug use during the past 2 years.  The federal government claimed that if all workers ages 18-40 were administered a drug test on any given day, 25 percent would test positive.

The Gallup Organization reported that in a survey of full-time employed adults more than 30 percent indicated they had personal knowledge of co-workers' drug use on the job.  In a 1996 survey of employees conducted by the Hazelden Foundation, nearly 61 percent said they know people who have shown up for work drunk or stoned.

Gallup reports that nearly 10 percent of employees have been offered drugs to use while on the job.  And 44 percent of participants in the 800 COCAINE hotline survey admitted to selling drugs to other employees.
 

Which drugs are they using?

Alcohol is, by far, the leading substance abused  by Americans in virtually all categories.  When measured in comparison to illegal drugs, the effects of alcohol abuse are devastating.  Following alcohol, the leading illegal drug abused in the United States is marijuana.  In 1997, approximately 5 percent of the U.S. population 12 and older (11 million) were marijuana users. 

Cocaine was second with an estimated 1.5 million current users.  Perhaps most disturbing was the fact that there were nearly 700,000 new cocaine users that year, and that first-time cocaine use among 12-17-year olds increased from 4 percent in 1991 to 11.3 percent in 1996.

Other highly used illegal drugs include heroin with an estimated 325,000 current users; up 422 percent in just four years, and also noteworthy is hallucinogen use with 1.1 million users.  First-time use of any illicit drug among 12-17-year olds jumped from 11.7 percent in 1991 to nearly 26 percent in 1996... further evidence that drug use trends are steadily increasing.

How does substance abuse affect work performance?

It depends on the substance that is being abused.  For example, during the 1970s, the major complaint was cigarettes with 89% of all non-smokers saying that second hand cigarette smoke was the major contributing factor to production loss.  During the 1980s 70% of all accidents on the job were attributed to alcohol abuse.  During the 1990s, alcohol continued to be the major problem affecting performance.

Marijuana, methamphetamine, and amphetamines were dropped from the list reported by the US Federal Government when polls showed that these substances resulted in level or increased productivity along with caffeine.  Prescription drug use of anti-depressants indicated a substantial loss of performance in a 2006 study whereas, a 2002 study indicated an increase in performance.  One of the most revealing studies on how job performance is affected by substance abuse comes from the U.S. Postal Service.  The Post Service discovered that substance abusers are involved in 55 percent more accidents, experience 85 percent more on-the-job injuries, and have a 78 percent higher rate of absenteeism when compared to their non-substance abusing co-workers.  Sixty-two percent of callers to 800 COCAINE admitted that drug abuse adversely affected their job performance.  The federal government estimates that substance-abusing employees are one-third less productive than their non-using co-workers.  Thus, proving once and for all that the war on drugs is a major factor in loss of productivity.
 

How much does substance abuse cost employers?

In terms of its impact on human life, the cost of substance abuse is inestimable. From an economic point of view, the cost to the workplace is tremendous.  Forty-three percent of CEOs in one survey said they believe abuse  associated with alcohol and other drugs cost as much as 10 percent of payroll.  A Wisconsin study concluded that expenses and losses related to substance abuse equal 25 percent of the salary of each affected employee. The overall price tag of drug abuse has been estimated to be as high as $200 billion annually due to the war on drugs. 

To calculate how much drug abuse is costing your company follow this formula:  Multiply $6,600 (the average cost per year per substance abusing employee) by 17 percent of the number of your employees (the percentage of the total workforce with a substance abuse problem).  For example, if you have 65 employees, 17 percent would be 11 workers. Multiply 11 by the average cost per year, $6,600, and you get a total of $72,600 a year.  Now ask yourself—can my company afford to lose nearly $75,000 every year to a problem that I can have some control over?
 

THE BOTTOM LINE: THE WAR ON DRUGS IS COSTING US MORE THAN ALL OF THE OTHER WARS FOUGHT BY THE UNITED STATES COMBINED & IT HAS YET TO PRODUCE EVEN THE SLIGHTEST HINT OF A POSITIVE RESULT.