Program Can Help Combat Drug Use
by Pamala Williams

The Attorney General Mike Bowers of Georgia and candidate for
Governor for 1998. Has a plan to combat drug use in the fine state
of Georgia. According to the article in the May 23, 1997 Valdosta
Daily Times, the Attorney says to a group of business men at the
Valdosta Country Club. That a plan to combat drug use, the Drugs
Don't Work program as it is called. With his speech to the group of
business men. His claims are that since 1958 the population has
dropped by 16 percent. The crime rate, however has grown to out of
control proportions, he said. Since that time, the murder rate has
doubled by 200 percent. The number of rapes has increased by 900
percent and robberies have shot up 1,800 percent. Those statistics
have jumped for one reason crime and drug use are symbiotic and
together are on the rise. "That's representative of what's going on
all over this country," Bowers said. " Those kind of numbers tell
you this country will not survive. If we see the same kind of
increase over the next 35 years, we won't survive. There's no way."
While the government and law enforcement agencies have been
working for years to try and stop illegal drug sales and use by
battling suppliers, tactics haven't worked, Chuck Wade, with the
Georgia Chamber of Commerce, said.
Wade, who coordinates the Drugs Don't Work program on the state
level, explained that fighting the war on drugs is a battle that can
be won using the simple premise of supply and demand.
If you can't control supply , you've got to find a way to curb
the demand.
With statistics showing that 70% of all drug user hold JOBS,
Wade explained that the creation of a drugfree work place can drive
down that demand. An undercover drug agent for more than 11 years,
wade explained there are two very different populations of drug users.

"There are those who steal and deal," Wade said. "The ones
you typically think of when you think of 'drug dealers.' But they
are just a teenytiny portion of the drug users. The rest are people
who go to church every other Sunday, they're your coworkers, your
neighbors."
It's also a group that can change, Wade said.
"How do we know this will work?" he asked. Five years ago
this room would have been filled with smoke ... five years ago people
would have come to work this morning and bragged about how drunk they
got and how they don't know how they made it home. But those things
aren't acceptable any more. Changing social attitudes have been made
possible by the attacks launched by small groups of people."
Through the Drugs Don't Work program, which presents a three
pronged approach of prevention, treatment and education, Wade says
business can be the force that helps change society's attitude about
recreational drug use.
While helping reduce the demand for drugs, the employer also
will net some very tangible benefits.
Businesses that offer drugfree work places realize a 7.5 percent
discount on their worker's compensation premiums, see increased
productivity, decreased absenteeism and cut their medical insurance
rates by 300 percent. Employee turnover is reduced, as is
absenteeism, Wade said.
" If everyone would implement this program, people would know two
things," Quillian Powell, chairman of the chamber's Drugs Don't Work
advisory committee said. "They'll all know that you can't work here
if you use drugs and that we care for you. This program is not
designed to find drug use and create a problem, it's designed to
offer a way to help."
The chamber will become a resource for those enrolled in the
program. Joan Kierce, who begins working at the chamber next week,
will serve as the local program coordinator.