Hallucinogenic Drugs in the Workplace; Forget It, You Will Never See Any

True. But you will see their toll.

HALLUCINOGENS ANALOGS HALLUCINOGEN-TYPE DRUGS AND "CLUB DRUGS" WITH SEDATIVE EFFECTS include: LSD, Mescaline and Peyote, Meth-Amphetamine and variants, GHB, Ketamine, Phencyclidine (PCP) and analogs; Psilocybin, etc. Street names include: LSD: Acid, Microdot, Window Panes, blotter acid, Peyote: buttons, Cactus, mescal, PCP: Love Boat, Shermans, Angel Dust, Woodies Methamphetamine: Crystal, Ecstasy, ICE, MDA, MDMA, DMA, GHB:  Grievous Bodily Harm,Mushrooms: Shrooms; Administered by Orally; Some may be injected like crystal methamphetamine; Other hallucinogens may be smoked or made into a tea (peyote, mescaline, etc.) Effects of these drugs of abuse include slurred speech, blurred vision, confusion, distortion of time and space, sensory distortions, illusions, hallucinations, paranoia, dilated pupils, mood swings, possible aggression, agitation. Hazards of use include anxiety, depression, impaired memory, flashbacks at any time, emotional and psychotic reactions, death from overdose, organic brain damage from PCP use. To obtain a handout for drug of abuse in the workplace, go to the tip sheet section of http://workexcel.com

Preview our DOT Reasonable Suspicion Training Course to Meet the Two Hour Supervisor Training Mandate

 

DOT Supervisors: Don't Kill Your Alcoholic Employees with Kindness

Here is a checklist: Have you ever called someone a "functional alcoholic?" Is so, it's time to back off of this label, but it is going to kill your employee someday. Do you have a social relationship with this person where drinking plays an important role? Have you heard “stories” about the functional alcoholic’s home life that are problematic or disturbing to you, and do you redpond to them with your advice? Does the thought of not socializing with the functional alcoholic seem unacceptable and disconcerting because you do not want to give up a great friend? Have you dismissed or minimized alcohol-related problems that have occurred in the functional               alcoholic’s life, even while thinking to yourself that this person needs help? Would your decision to stop drinking with the functional alcoholic cause him or her to question your loyalty or ability to have a good time? If others agreed to participate in an intervention to motivate the functional alcoholic to enter treatment, would you feel inclined to argue against it, motivated by how your life might change? Do you believe the functional alcoholic would become boring if he or she decided to stop drinking for good? As you educate yourself about Reasonable Suspicion .If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, you are an enabler. Don't worry, because here is the easy "shift" in thinking about drug abuse and alcoholism that you need to accept: Alcoholics are not responsible for acquiring their illness. Instead, they are responsible for treatment when any evidence of addiction begins to itself as symptoms. All drug free workplace programs and all EAPs knowf the great value of

What to Do about Coworker Cover Up and Enabling

Coworkers become enablers like anyone else in the immediate circle of the active addict's life. These employee are no different than supervisors, the employee with a drug or alcohol problem him or herself, family members, or supervisors. Everyone enables until a point in time comes that they are not enabling. This reality is 100% universal fact among alcoholic and drug addicts. If you live with an addict and think you are not enabling, you are probably fooling yourself, but it is more likely that you don't understand enabling completely. Enabling can be very subtle and it can mean doing something, not doing something, saying something, or not saying something that helps the addict not recognize or accept the consequences of his or her behavior, no matter how small, linked to the use of alcohol or other drugs of abuse. To impact the workforce and reduce the risk of substance abuse on the job, or the effects of substance abuse on the job, it is critical to educate employees about Workplace Substance Abuse so they are educated to dispel myths and false hoods about addiction. This is why we created the Alcohol and Other Drugs at Work: What Employees Should Know product.

Help Supervisors Understand the Addiction Progression Curve in DOT Drug and Alcohol Training Classes

You will find a drug and alcohol training, addictive disease progression curve here.

Follow the link below the form above to the handout and you can download the tip sheet for reasonable suspicion training at http://workexcel.com (look for tip sheet. The point is to have each supervisor with a copy while you discuss the progress and symptoms in the workplace. You will get some real discussion going, and the upside (the sneaky side) is that employees with an alcohol or drug addiction problem will be to self-diagnose. It's impossible not to personally self-diagnose one's own alcohol and drug program when reviewing these signs and symptoms in the DOT Reasonable Suspicion Training Class (see powerpoint)

Reasonable Suspicion Training Myths for Supervisors: The Myth of the "Contact High"

"Man, I didn't smoke anything! It must have been a "contact high" because I was nearby!!" - You will hear this excuse someday after sitting through your DOT Supervisor Training class on Alcohol and Drug Education. You will feel confused and say, "wow, now what?" Here's what you need to know: In drug testing results, there is no such thing as a contact high. The reason is quite simple. It has to do with "Cutoff Level" also known as "Cutoff Concentration."  These terms refer the amount of a substance detectable in the urine or the bloodstream sample. Certain levels of concentration are decide upon, and if that threshold is not reached, the test is negative. The amount or the level of a substance in the body fluid that will trigger a positive test is measured in nanograms (That is one billionth of a gram!) per milliliter of urine. If an employee gives a sample and the concentration of the drug's metabiolite is greater than the decide up on level that indicates the person used, then a positive test is signaled. Anything lower is considered negative. "Contact highs" aren't measurable or at least will not reach the threshold! So an employee who tells you they were i in the wrong place at the wrong time is simply, well, "blowin' smoke" for lack of a better way to say it.

Classic Alcoholic Interventions with Employees --- FORGET-ABOUT-IT!

Reasonable suspicion training in the workplace does not include information on doing interventions. And it should not. However, the idea may cross your mind someday, and you need to forget about doing them. You have probably seen interventions on television. There was a television show once (or maybe it is still on) that showed how these were typically done. They involve confronting an alcoholic or drug addict with a group of family members in a surprise meeting designed to create a manufactured crisis of emotional proportions that motivates the addict to enter addiction treatment without delay. Don't do these interventions (the classical form of them) in the workplace. Not only will they not work, but you could get royally sued. Interventions do, absolutely work. They are marvelous tools, but they require two things. The right leverage and the right influence for the context in which they occur; and 2) a bit of instruction in the approach and delivery. I will add a third critical addition--never use a professional counselor or addiction expert in an intervention in the workplace as a buffer, reference expert, or just to have on hand in case the employee goes postal. Doing this violates a principle in the helping professions called "client self-determination" and it can elicit a lawsuit. Instead only use (in the workplace) those individuals with senior management positions and the authority to fire the employee. Only focus on the job issues and roll out the red carpet and the source of help for a professional assessment. IF the employee would like to go, great! If not, say, "Pick up your check!" This is the one-minute intervention. If the employee does not want to go to the assessment, terminate for cause. If you are not ready to terminate your employee, then don't do the intervention. Just let the problem get worse. You will be back in the future to terminate -- guaranteed. Secret Trick: If the employee makes the wrong choice, give him or her 24 hours to think it over. He or she will change the mind 90% of the time. Base your intervention only on performance, attendance, conduct, availability, and attitude on the job. The goal of the referral is assessment and referral to professional help IF THE EMPLOYEE WOULD LIKE TO GO--not you. You don't care! That is your position. DO NOT DEVIATE FROM IT.

DOT Supervisors Who Socialize and Drink with Employees

You may not want to hear this, but if you drink with your employees, go fishing, socialize, whoop it up and attempt to be one of the boys, you are at risk for reasonable suspicion training not doing you much good. No, I don't mean you aren't going to get anything out of the training. On the contrary, you are going to get a lot of education, but you are going to discover that you are greatly conflicted. That's because your loyalty to the employee, your own enjoyment of their company, the bonding you develop, the rationale you maintain for being their friend, the empathy you employ to understand all their problems is going to prevent you from "breaking bad" and confronting them with the mandate of taking a drug test if you smell alcohol on their breath at work and have enough observable and document-able information to require a reasonable suspicion test. You'll feel upset when this happens, and you will most likely wait, "give things more time," blow off the first occurrence, or keep any eye on things while promising yourself you are not enabling. No, instead your a "mindful" supervisor. Enabling with awareness of course is still enabling. Well, this entire conflict is called having a dual relationship. It is also referred to as a "conflict of interests." Your boss is the organization. Your paycheck originates there. And that is where your loyalty must be. Now, what are you going to do? You need to sit down with your employee and have a chat, and it is okay to make a presentation to your group that although you are friends, you will need to act on the company's alcohol and drug policy because if you do not, you put yourself and the organization risk. I will be the first to admit that this is a tough spot for any supervisor, but there are steps you can take now. And if you are a new supervisor in a DOT supervisory role, make this commitment now not to socialize with workers, especially around booze. This is grown up stuff. You will need to get socializing  needs met another way. It is comes with the territory.