Impact of Drinking Too Much Often Overlooked by More “Popular Drugs”

We at Working Partners® are not the only ones talking a lot about the havoc that today’s “popular” drugs of abuse — prescription medications, heroin, marijuana and synthetic drugs (e.g., bath salts) — are wreaking on our country, communities and workplaces. Media outlets, government agencies, treatment facilities and concerned citizens are expending energy and resources around these issues like we’ve never seen before.

And the attention is justified:

• • We’re in the midst of a prescription drug abuse and heroin epidemic.
  • Employers are being taken to courts across the county to defend their actions related to legalized marijuana.
  • Recipes for synthetic drugs are changing so fast that not even law enforcement can keep up.

It’s justified, yet the noise around these trendy drugs seems to have silenced the “granddaddy of them all” – alcohol abuse. And this popular drug impacts the workplace on a day-to-day basis like none other – equivalent to a dripping faucet we learn to tolerate (or ignore) that is putting a drain on the family budget.

Thirty-five percent of adults either choose not to drink or do so within established low-risk guidelines. Not the problem. And alcohol consumption, like entertaining a prospective client over dinner and a glass of wine or allowing employees to have a beer at the holiday party, is an accepted part of business culture if done within the parameters of a policy. Again, not the issue. What is a problem is the prevalence of heavy¹ and binge² drinking, the attitudes surrounding such high-risk behaviors and the many health- and impairment-related problems that threaten the well-being of communities, families and the workplace.

It’s important to set the record straight about who is causing the majority of these alcohol-related problems. It’s not the alcoholic. On the contrary, most alcohol-related problems like DUI, crime, theft or slacking off at work are caused by heavy and/or binge drinkers – those who don’t necessarily drink every day, make fools out of themselves at the company party, or hide bottles in their desk drawers. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports at least 80% of binge drinkers are not alcohol dependent.

And most of these heavy and binge drinkers are adults; 70% of binge drinking episodes involve adults over the age of 26. Seventy-five percent of them are also employed either full- or part-time. The majority are male (two times more than women), white and have a household income of $75,000 or more.

Get that? People who have and cause the majority of alcohol-related problems are not the “down and outs,” hanging out on Main Street, USA, drinking cheap wine out of brown paper sacks.  Society doesn’t have much tolerance or compassion for the alcoholic’s drinking, or the problems associated with that disease, but we easily tolerate and even encourage heavy or binge drinking. Drinking four or five glasses of wine at a party, downing a five-shot Long Island Ice Tea at a restaurant or chasing some beers with a few shots of liquor might not even catch anyone’s attention. But it’s that type of high-risk use that is at the root of most alcohol-related health and impairment problems.

According to the CDC, there are approximately 88,000 deaths attributed to excessive alcohol use each year in the United States, ranking binge drinking as the third leading lifestyle-related cause of death in the nation.  Eleven percent of all breast cancer cases are attributable to alcohol, and studies report that 40% of all hospital beds in the U.S. are being used to treat health conditions (excluding pregnancy and intensive care) that are related to alcohol consumption. Even such conditions as high blood pressure, impotence, sleep disorders and weight gain can be caused by drinking too much alcohol, i.e.,  drinking more than what has been determined as low-risk³ amounts.

In addition to health problems, there are many impairment problems that can be tied directly to drinking too much — physically or emotionally assaulting someone (including family members and friends), taking advantage of someone sexually,  damaging property, stealing, killing someone in a car crash or industrial accident, or other crimes. Many of these and other more subtle alcohol-related problems – over-sleeping and being late for work or missing it altogether, spending too much money, saying something inappropriate to a client, or behaving in a way that causes regret or embarrassment – directly impact the workplace.  And again, these problems are not only attached to alcoholism. They can occur after a single drinking episode.

The economic cost of excessive alcohol consumption in 2006 is estimated at $223.5 billion, with over half of this total being assigned as lost productivity. Employees who drink too much are expensive – in terms of lost productivity and other things that directly impact the bottom line (e.g., workers’ compensation claims, high utilization of insurance benefits, damaged equipment, theft, insulting a customer, attracting negative media attention).

So how should business owners balance the fact that alcohol is part of the business world yet has the potential to cause so many problems?  Working Partners® suggests a straight-forward, yet rational, three-point approach to preventing high-risk alcohol consumption from impacting the workplace:

1. 1. 1. POLICY – Be sure your drug-free workplace policy thoughtfully and specifically articulates rules about alcohol consumption on and off the job. Apply objective measures to define terms such as “under the influence” and give clear guidance as to when an alcohol test will and will not be applied.
      2. CULTURE – Be sure your drinking norms and culture match your policy. If your policy is written appropriately, getting “drunk” at a company party or while traveling out of town on company business is unacceptable and a violation of company policy.
      3. EDUCATION — Educate employees about the company’s expectations about alcohol consumption and about low-risk drinking guidelines. Unlike other commonly abused drugs like marijuana, there are research-based guidelines for users to follow that have been shown to minimize the risk of alcoholism or alcohol abuse. Employees should also be educated about where they, or a loved one, could get more information or help for an alcohol-related issue.

Other drugs of abuse will come in and out of vogue, but alcohol will always play a significant role in society and the workplace. It’s important that workplaces make sure to stay focused on this “granddaddy” as they continue to follow and respond to other drug trends.

1. Binge use: Five or more drinks on the same occasion (i.e. at the same time or within a couple of hours of each other) on at least 1 day in the past 30 days.
2. Heavy use: Five or more drinks on the same occasion on each of 5 or more days in the past 30 days.
3. Low-Risk Alcohol Consumption:
   • Men – No more than 4 drinks on any day AND no more than 14 drinks per week.
   • Women – No more than 3 drinks on any day AND no more than 7 per week.

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