TERRE HAUTE —
By Lisa Trigg
Tribune-Star
Drug use among the Wabash Valley work force may be affecting employers more than they know.
Product quality, on-the-job injuries and employee absences can all be related to employee drug use. The best way to determine if drug use is a factor is to randomly drug test employees.
Dr. Randy Stevens, medical director for Union Hospital’s Center for Occupational Health, shared that information with community employers Thursday afternoon during a presentation at the Landsbaum Center.
But Stevens also noted that random drug testing is often strongly resisted by employees. And the reasons are many-fold, including inconvenience, worry about false positives, and — to be honest — drug use by employees.
Brendan Kearns, director of the Center For Occupational Health, gave an example of that through one area employer (who remained anonymous) which began drug testing employees about three months ago. Kearns said that employer found that eight of 10 employees tested in the first round were positive for drugs.
Prescription drugs are probably the most abused substance in America, Dr. Stevens said. And probably the drug most prescribed/abused is the pain pill hydrocodone, or vicodin.
“Physicians have become pretty free in prescribing it to people,” Stevens said, because it is effective in treating sprains and strains as well as post-operative pains. “But it can lead susceptible individuals on the road to prescription drug abuse.”
The county coroner has seen a steady increase each year in the number of people who die from prescription drug overdoses, Stevens said.
The prescription drug methadone is a powerful narcotic, and unlike some other drugs, just one dose that is too high can cause a person to stop breathing. Cocaine use has also been detected on more urine screens than it was two years ago, he said.
Xanax, valium and other drugs used to treat anxiety and panic attacks also rank high on the locally abused drug list.
“People with addiction issues can get addicted to this (xanax) pretty quickly,” said Stevens, who served for years as the physician for the Vigo County jail and connected xanax addiction to some inmate medical issues. “If they run out of it, they will have convulsions. It turned out this was the No. 1 cause of seizures at the jail.”
One overlooked workplace concern is alcohol use by employees. Alcohol is deemed as “somewhat acceptable” in many workplaces, Stevens said, but it can also affect worker safety and quality control.
A long-time concern for some employers has been marijuana use. The active ingredient THC can remain in a user’s body anywhere from a few days for an occasion user to up to a month for an everyday marijuana smoker. But these days, some marijuana-like products have hit the market for which there is no test, and no regulation.
These new “synthetic drugs” have a similar effect to marijuana, causing a mellow high, but the drugs do not appear on common drug screens. In fact, these substances — with names such as K2, K3, K4, Spice, Purple Haze, Black Widow, Daze, and Summit — are not regulated and are not labeled so the consumer knows what is contained in it.
These drugs are a substance that mimics the effects of THC. It is sprayed onto incense, and when burned, it gives the effect of smoking marijuana.
“The problem with this is that we don’t know the problem with this,” Sheriff Jon Marvel said while joining Stevens in addressing employers.
Hundreds of products with the faux-pot ingredient are sold in convenience stores and head shops all over the state and the nation, but there are no ingredients listed.
Marvel said the K2 problem was recognized locally by the Vigo County Drug Task Force, so action was taken by the Vigo County Commissioners to ban the sale of K2 in the county. However, it is not illegal to possess it. And the county ordinance does not cover the other marijuana knock-off drugs, though the commissioners are considering expanding the ordinance and state legislators are looking into a statewide ban, as well.
The problem of K2 use has shown up in the local schools, Marvel said, where students appear to be stoned. But when they are tested for drugs, the synthetic substances are not showing up in the drug screens. And yet, use of these substances is becoming a problem among young people and for employers just within the past 12 months.
“The point being,” Dr. Stevens said, “this was not even on our radar last year.”
Another issue that Stevens forewarned about is E-cigarettes, which are being claimed by tobacco companies as cigarettes that produce no second-hand smoke.
The federal Food and Drug Administration is looking hard at these claims, he said, and just recently cracked down on energy drinks that combine alcohol and caffeine because of the lethal effect of overconsumption.
Marvel said he has spent most of two terms as sheriff fighting the local scourge of methamphetamine production and abuse, which has had a devastating effect on local families, the environment, neighborhoods, the workforce and county government.
The county jail is overcrowded at this point with more than 300 inmates, Marvel said, and about 90 percent of those incarcerated were arrested for drug-related crimes. About 75 percent of that 90 percent committed crimes due to methamphetamine. And many of those meth abusers have major medical issues because of the drug use.
“It costs you as taxpayers a ton of money, because they end up in our jail with rotted teeth and rotted insides,” Marvel said of the financial effect of meth on local government. “When they end up in our jail, we pay the medical bills.”
For 2011, the county has budgeted $500,000 toward inmate medical costs. That amount will be exceeded, Marvel said, simply because of the meth abusing inmates.
Unfortunately, by the time many meth abusers end up in jail, they have usually lost their jobs and their insurance due to their drug use. So the public ends up paying for their incarceration, medical care, and in some cases, their substance abuse treatment.
Dr. Stevens also gave employers present at Thursday’s session information on the “hot new drug” that is making in-roads in America.
Khat chewing, or African Salad, is made from a bush that grows in the Sudan and Ethiopia. The plant’s leaf has an amphetamine type of product, and khat has been showing up in the United States.
“You heard it here today,” Stevens said. “This may be the next new drug — African Salad.”
Lisa Trigg can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or lisa.trigg@tribstar.com.
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