Drug trends test area employers

ST. MARYS - Area business owners and leaders on Tuesday learned about three pressing trends involving drugs in the workplace, with an emphasis on how legalizing marijuana could impact their employee policies.

Karen Pierce of Working Partners, a consulting firm that helps businesses create and maintain drug free workplaces, outlined three main drug concerns her firm has identified in the workplace.

First, most employers are not protected against prescription drug abuse, which is second only to marijuana abuse, Pierce said. She explained it is difficult to create a drug policy that balances a company's need for safety and an employee's right to privacy. She added many drug screenings don't test for prescription medication.

Pierce suggested employers expand testing to detect prescription drugs and review their policies.

The second trend Pierce highlighted was a nationwide increase in positive drug test results.

"The percentage of Americans that tested positive for illicit drugs has increased for the second consecutive year in the U.S.," Pierce said.

From 2013 to 2014, positive tests increased 9.3 percent nationally, Pierce explained. The biggest increases were detected in the use of heroin, 100 percent; marijuana, 14.3 percent; cocaine, 9.1 percent; and amphetamines, 7.2 percent. She did not provide the total numbers of positive results.

"Is legalization (of marijuana) a response to this issue?" Pierce asked.

She believes a simple answer is "no." The reasoning behind her answer is more complicated.

"We try to limit the shades of gray. Anytime you have a policy with gray, it is in that gray where problems happen. Oftentimes it is in a court of law where that gray is cleared up. But with legalization, you go way beyond 50 shades of gray," Pierce said.

The problem, she explained, is that marijuana laws don't exist in isolation. If marijuana were legalized, it would affect unemployment, Drug Free Workplace Programs, worker's compensation, insurance coverage, records keeping, collective bargaining and privacy, she said.

"Businesses say to me all the time, 'Can't I just say in my policy that I'm adhering to federal law? Can't I just say that marijuana is illegal at the federal level?' " Pierce said. "My response is 'Yes, do that.' Right now that's one of the best things to do (if marijuana is legalized). However, it doesn't mean you're not going to get sued. Because there's gray, there will be conflict."

An example of a gray area is whether or not businesses would have to accommodate medical marijuana users, she said. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, businesses would not be required to accommodate people using the drug illegally. However, Issue 3 on the Nov. 3 ballot, which seeks to legalize marijuana in Ohio, states that "a patient with a medical marijuana certification may self-administer the medical marijuana subject to the same conditions applied to prescribed medications."

The problem is that medically approved marijuana is not prescribed since it is not FDA approved and no dosage amounts are set, Pierce said.

ResponsibleOhio, the group advocating for Issue 3, seeks to legalize both medical and personal marijuana use. Personal use could also affect businesses. While employers could fire a worker for showing up to work intoxicated, it is very hard to quantify marijuana intoxication, Pierce said.

"The effects of marijuana are more cognitive than behavioral. If someone is drunk, their speech becomes slurred, they stagger. But if someone is under the influence of marijuana, typically it's cognitive and very difficult to tell just by looking," Pierce said. "The test (for marijuana) tells us how much is in their system. It doesn't tell us if they're impaired. Right now we don't have that test to scientifically measure impairment. We'll have that someday but right now we don't."

ResponsibleOhio's language prohibits operating a vehicle while intoxicated but does not define intoxication, Pierce said.

For the sake of workplace safety, Pierce advised business owners and managers have a comprehensive Drug Free Workplace Policy in place, stay informed, participate in the debate and evaluate the issues in the context of their business.

The seminar was sponsored by the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Allen, Auglaize and Hardin Counties, which uses the firm for its "We Care at Work" initiative.