Friday, April 21, 2017

Drugs of Abuse Chart for DOT Supervisor Training

I hope most drug and alcohol training programs provide a drugs of abuse chart for supervisors to look and discuss in their DOT compliance training classes. The drugs of abuse chart typically shows the five classifications of drugs and alcohol that the DOT requires to be examined by supervisors to help them learn about the nature of these substances, their effects on work performance, and the behavior of employees, signs and symptoms of their use, and the risks the substances pose in the work environment.

This chart should be editable and it should change over time with the discovery of new drugs of abuse that could find their way into the workplace. Employees these days have many sneaky ways of bring drugs into workplace, here is an example of a crack pipe we show in our DOT Supervisor Training PowerPoint and other training formatted courses.


DOT Supervisor Training PowerPoint for Reasonble Suspicion













Pretty crazy, huh? And this crack pipe is only a small example of the types of devices that are produced to thwart detection by management and provide reasonable suspicion training.

There are many other examples of how drug use is snuck into companies. I also have an image of a Chapstick that is really also a crack pipe. When all these clever tricks exist, there is only one thing supervisors can do about it -- monitor performance effectively. The drugs of abuse chart can help, but don't be fooled, good old fashioned observation of behaviors on the job is the way to go.

So, sure, knowing all these devices of trickery is a good thing for awareness, but none of it substitutes for a really solid drugs of abuse chart where supervisors can learn about the behavior of employees and how to be healthy.

Supervisor should be educated about other drugs of abuse like Salvia and K2. When supervisor training refresher is done, ask them to update their own charts with the drug and alcohol training they receive. And, as I mentioned before, do not omit employee education about substance abuse. Employees are your eyes and ears. They will let you know by one means or another, what is going on in the organization. But you are going to need to engage with them until they trust you. At that point, they will stop dropping hints about the work culture and what risks exist within it.

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