The ability of American businesses to compete on a local, national and even a global basis is endangered by drugs in the workplace. The cost of drug abuse is experienced through a higher rate of accidents, absences, workers' compensation claims, tardiness, use of sickness benefits, and medical benefits usage. Three times as many sickness benefits are used by abusers. Drug abusers are five times more likely to file a workers' compensation claim. Drug abusers are sixteen times more likely to be absent than non-abusers.
Drug abusers are tardy for work three times more often than non-abusers.
Drugs account for as much as eighty percent of losses due to theft in the workplace. Employers can ill afford to ignore these facts. One other significant finding in the study released by DHHS is that drug usage among full-time employees dropped from 16.7 percent in 1985 to 7.3 percent in 1993. These proactive workplace programs may be part of the reason for the decline of drug use noted in the study. Still a 7.3 percent of usage is nothing to brag about.