Understanding Drug Tolerance

Drug and Alcohol Awareness Programs will help supervisors understand the behavioral differences between non–alcoholic and alcoholics, which are caused by the nervous system’s ability to tolerate larger quantities of alcohol and still function. Employees dealing with alcoholism may drink in the morning and hide alcohol in order to drink when needed, but without being seen or detected. There have been reports on recovering workers that admit to using Vodka as the drink of choice in their later years because the smell was least detectable. An example of a drug tolerance difference is blackouts, which demonstrate the nervous system’s adaption to alcohol. It is rare for a non-alcoholic to have a blackout because most social drinkers will pass out, fall asleep, or throw up before encountering a blackout.