Worker Drug Use and Workplace Policies and Programs:
Results from the 1994 and 1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse
Workplace
Information, Policies about Drug and Alcohol Use, and Employee Assistance
Programs
There were no changes between 1994 and 1997
in the percent of employees who said that their workplaces provided information
about drug and alcohol use, had a written policy about drug and alcohol
use, or provided access to employee assistance programs.
In 1997, workers in small establishments who
reported current illicit drug use were less likely than non-users in small
establishments to say that their workplace had a written policy about drug
and alcohol use (36% vs. 42%).
In 1997, there were no statistically significant
differences between workers who reported heavy alcohol use and those who
did not report heavy alcohol use in the percent saying that their workplace
provided access to an employee assistance program (44% for heavy alcohol
users, 50% for those who were not heavy alcohol users).
In 1994, 15 percent of current illicit drug
users who worked at small establishments reported that their workplace
provided access to employee assistance programs (EAPs); by 1997, it had
increased to 28 percent. During this same period, the rate of current illicit
drug use among workers in small establishments decreased (from 11% to 8.6%).
SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is
the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and
availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and
mental health services in the United
States.