Drugs and alcohol in the workplace everyone has heard of it its well publisized in the media and workplace yet many people choose to turn a blind eye to it. Many of their philosophies are "As long as it don't affect me its not my problem" and therein lies the issue. As long as the issued is ignored it is never dealt with companies have reporting procedures in place but again many companies don't want to know about it as it causes them issues and costs as well therefore the cycle continues.
Many who do drugs or alcohol think they can operate normally but the reality of the situation is no they can't. Whether it be somebody pushing papers all day, a cook in a kitchen, Operate a motor vehicle, heavy equipment or run equipment from a computer if they are on any kind of drug or alcohol while doing said operation they are impaired. It affects everyone differently from slowing their motions and reflexes down to aggressive behavior to crashing(sleeping) after coming off their high to impairing their thought processes.
So how do you fix a problem that perpetuates itself. The easiest way is like they do in the gas and oil industry mandatory random drug and alcohol testing it may not be the cheapest solution but it is generally recognized as being a stop gap measure. But there is a lot of resistance to that because of privacy concerns. I feel that safety of those around you should come before your concerns of privacy. The bottom line is until someone takes the lead the issue of Drugs and alcohol will continue to perpetuate itself til somebody gets hurt or killed because of it.
Dean Soiland
Prince George
