The Drug Free Workplace Solution to America's Drug Problem

My name is Chuck Wade. I’m the state director of a program called Drugs Don’t Work. Before I became the state director of the Drugs Don't Work program I was a police officer for fifteen years, and for eleven of those years I worked as an undercover narcotics agent. So for 11 years I lived with drug users, drug dealers and drug addicts. I spent a lot of time sitting and talking with those folks on their roach-infested sofas, and there were many times I would watch them leave and go off to work so knee-walking drunk and so stoned out of their minds, I don’t know how they made it. Up until a few years ago, I looked much like they did. I had long hair all the way down to my waist, I wore two earrings in my ear; I still have the tattoos. And from that experience I learned a few things about the drug problem in this country.
The first thing I learned is just how serious the drug problem is; I think it’s the most serious problem facing us as a nation. I’m convinced that drugs are a contagious, terminal plague on the United States of America. We simply must do something about America’s drug problem. And Lord knows we’ve been trying.
Since 1990, the United States of America has spent more that $290 billion of your federal tax money trying to stop drugs from coming into America. Two-hundred-ninety billion (with a b). That’s more money than we’ve spent on all bio-medical research combined. We have spent more money trying to stop drugs from coming into America than we’ve spent on finding a cure for cancer, aids, and heart disease combined. Now let me ask you a question: What’s been the result of this enormous expenditure of your federal tax dollars? Well, in the last 10 years, heroin and cocaine production over in source countries has doubled. Cocaine and heroin are cheaper today on the streets of America than they have ever been.
After throwing billions and billions of your tax dollars at the supply side of America’s drug problem, not only have we not stopped it, it’s gotten twice as bad. And the truth is; we’re never going to be able to stop drugs from coming into this country. It’s absolutely impossible - I’ll tell you why. It only takes 10 tractor-trailer loads of cocaine (pure cocaine) to supply the United States with all the cocaine it needs for one year. So imagine trying to figure out which trucks are bringing in the coke at what point and stopping them. It’s impossible - it can’t be done. It only takes one airplane the size of a Boeing 747 airliner loaded with heroin (pure heroin) to supply the United States with all the heroin it needs for one year. So imagine trying to figure out which large airplane, or which smaller airplanes are flying in the heroin at what point and stopping them. That, too, is impossible.
It only takes one 25 square mile tract of land to grow enough opium poppies or enough coca plants to produce enough heroin or enough cocaine to supply this country with all those drugs it needs for one year. So you see, it doesn’t matter how many coca fields we destroy over in source countries like Columbia and Peru. It doesn’t matter how many opium poppies we eradicate over in source countries in the Middle East, like Afghanistan and other Middle-Eastern countries. They’ve already warehoused up enough processed heroin and processed cocaine to supply this country with all those drugs it needs for the next 20 years.
In Mexico, drug smugglers are flying cocaine across our borders in radio-controlled airplanes. Little model airplanes that are so small, not only are they invisible to radar, they’re invisible to visual observation. Up in Canada, enterprising drug smugglers have figured out a way to form cocaine into a plastic-like substance, which they’re molding into (among other things) air cargo kennels used to carry pets onboard commercial airliners, and they’re smuggling in coke in that way.
A few years ago, this 57-year-old man and his 62-year-old wife; Rachel, were apprehended as they attempted to drive across the United States border from Mexico with $68 million worth of cocaine concealed in their motor home. Now, when our grandma and grandpa can be drug smugglers, how are we ever going to stop drugs from coming into this country? It’s impossible; it can’t be done.
A few years ago, my good friends at the Drug Enforcement Administration located this underground tunnel. It was a five ft. by five ft .concrete tunnel, 30 feet under the ground. The tunnel ran from the drug smuggler’s home in Mexico, underneath the United States border to his cocaine warehouse in Douglas, Arizona. It was equipped with electronic sump pumps to keep it dry and a system of pulleys for moving cocaine and money back and forth underneath the earth. It cost him $1.5 million dollars to build the tunnel. The way you got into the tunnel was by pushing a button in his home that raised an $18,000 pool table off the floor, revealing the entryway. When the DEA found the tunnel, they also found the bones of the workers he had hired to dig it, because when they completed it, he shot them execution style in the back of the head and buried them there so they couldn’t reveal the location. Also, when the DEA found that tunnel, they said, “We cannot begin to estimate the number of these tunnels that run underneath our borders for the purpose of smuggling drugs.”
You see, in order to stop drugs from coming into America, we would have to build an impenetrable dome, not only over the United States, but underneath the United States. But, of course, that’s impossible. We can’t do anything like that. And we’re not going to close off our borders - America has always been a friendly country. We’re not going to seal off our borders just to keep drugs from coming in here. That’s not going to happen. The point is; attacking the supply side of America’s drug problem has not worked in the past, it is not working now, and it will not work in the future.
Now, I’m going to tell you a secret that the politicians sometimes forget to mention to you when they tell you they need your tax money to attack the supply side of America’s drug problem. But let me stop here for just a minute and point something out to you that you may not realize; politicians lie. I know that’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Sometimes those rascals will outright lie. Sometimes they lie by omission, by leaving things out. What happens in this case is; they conveniently forget to tell us that even if we could stop all the drugs from coming into America, (which is absolutely impossible) but if a miracle occurred, (and that’s what it would take, a miracle), if the good Lord suddenly waved his hand and we were able stop every grain of cocaine and heroin from coming into this country tomorrow (and I said grain, like a grain of sand, not gram), if we could stop every grain of cocaine and heroin from coming into America tomorrow, the very next day drug dealers would be manufacturing synthetic cocaine and synthetic heroin in clandestine (hidden) laboratories all across this country. They can do that now. The only reason they don’t, right now, is that it is just cheaper for them to import those drugs, right now.
If we could stop all the cocaine and heroin from coming in, which we cannot; if we could send our law enforcement officers rushing out that next day to shut down all those hidden labs that would pop up and begin manufacturing those drugs synthetically (which of course would be impossible); well it still wouldn’t affect our marijuana problem, would it? We home grow marijuana with a THC content of over 60 percent. THC (Tetrahydracanabinol) is the active ingredient in marijuana that makes you high. Ten years ago, the best we could produce domestically - the best we could grow on U.S. soil - was 3 percent THC. It’s up over 60 percent now. That’s American ingenuity for you. So you see; that marijuana joint you may have smoked back in high school or college, is not the same pot our kids are smoking today. Today it is a much more serious, much more potent, much more dangerous, and yes, indeed a much more addictive drug. Marijuana is, in fact, an addictive drug. Medical science has proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt. And if anyone happens to still doubt that, I’ll be glad to debate it, head to head, nose to nose, toe to toe, with any so-called drug expert in this country. And I guarantee you I’ll win that debate. Marijuana is an addictive drug.
We grow marijuana up in the mountains all across this country, we grow it in greenhouses in our back yards, we grow it under grow lights in our basements, we grow it on our kitchen sinks and our bathroom counters. We no longer need to import marijuana anymore. We grow all we need right here at home. So, why on earth do we continue to allow our federal government to spend billions and billions of our tax dollars trying to stop pot from coming into this country? That’s absolutely ludicrous, and as long as we allow that to continue we might as well stand over a giant toilet and flush billion dollar bills. If we could stop all the coke and heroin from coming in, which we cannot; if we could eradicate and destroy every tiny little marijuana plant that is growing in this country tomorrow, - which would be impossible - well, it still wouldn’t affect our designer drugs problem, would it? It wouldn’t affect our LSD problem, our PCP problem, our ecstasy problem or our methamphetamine problem. We don’t have to import any of those drugs. We can make them all, right here in America.
As I said, attacking the supply side of America’s drug problem never has been and never will be the solution. But we must do something to stop this drug problem. It is destroying America from within. The drug problem is destroying this country morally, it is destroying this country ethically, and it is destroying this country economically. Drug abuse drains over 160 billion dollars a year from the American economy. It’s the most serious problem facing us as a nation.
Now, how on earth can I claim that the drug problem is the most serious problem facing us as a nation, in light of what happened to this country on September 11th, 2001? In other words, how can I say that the drug problem is a more serious problem than terrorism? Well, do you have any idea who funded that terrorist attack of September 11th on this country? You know that operation cost millions of dollars, right? Do you know who paid for that? Did you know that seventy-five percent of the al Qaeda terrorist organization’s funding comes from the illegal heroin trade? Now, which country do you suppose might be the largest consumer of heroin in the entire world? It is the United States of America. Americans consume 66 percent of the heroin produced worldwide. We are 4% of the world’s population, yet we consume 66% of all the heroin produced worldwide. And in that way, we were one of al Qaeda’s best customers. And I’m sad to say that, in that way, we brought that attack on ourselves. And as long as we continue to use illegal drugs in the United States of America, we will continue to fund terrorism. Because every terrorist organization that ever has existed, or ever will exist, is funded in large part by the illegal drug trade.
If you doubt that, let’s take Pablo Escobar’s cartel over in Columbia for example. Escobar was a narco-terrorist, and his career was remarkable. He killed 500 policemen in Medellin, Colombia. He assassinated 4 presidential candidates in that country. He murdered Columbia’s justice minister. He blew up a passenger airliner killing 110 people. He exploded a car bomb in Bogotá that killed 57 people. Now, how on earth did Pablo Escobar get away with those violent acts of murder and terror for as long as he did? Well, it’s quite simple, really. It was by being the largest supplier of cocaine to the United States of America for more than 15 years, which created so much incredible wealth, that it put him virtually above the law.
Currently, Escobar’s cartel has been replaced by the Fuerzas armadas revolucionarias de Columbia (the FARC). The FARC’s 16th front controls the eastern lowlands and the rain forests in Columbia; that’s where all the coca cultivation and cocaine processing takes place. Currently, the 16th front has become a major supplier of cocaine, now, not only to the United States of America, but to the entire world and they are responsible for acts of violence and terror that take place in Columbia on a weekly basis. And America is helping to fund that. Quite frankly, what goes around comes around.
In the Middle East, Hezbollah and Hamas are using opium crops there to finance their terrorist activities worldwide. In Peru, there’s an organization called the Shining Path. It’s a guerilla organization that’s been responsible for acts of violence and terror in that country for decades and they also control the illegal drug trade there. And that’s no coincidence. You see, terrorism requires cash to operate. The illegal drug trade is a cash business. This is a case of one evil supporting another.
So I’ll say it again; as long as we continue to use illegal drugs in the United States of America, we will continue to fund terrorism. Now, does that mean when someone in America goes out and buys illegal drugs that person is a terrorist? No, of course not. Does it mean that when a company refuses to implement a simple little drug-free workplace program that company is helping to support terrorism? No, I won’t go that far. But here is what I will say; since September 11, 2001, whenever someone in the United States of America goes out and buys an illegal drug, that is no longer just a personal decision to get high. Because a portion of the money that person is using to buy the dope with, is going to end up funding criminal organizations that are supporting terrorism. Even when a kid goes out and buys a quarter bag of pot, a portion of the money that kid is using to buy that dope with is going to end up in the hands of the Osama Bin Ladens and the Pablo Escobars of this world whether that kid wants to admit it or not.
Allow me to repeat it one more time. As long as we continue to use illegal drugs in the United States of America, we will continue to help fund terrorism. The drug problem in this country is the most serious problem facing us as a nation. It is destroying this country from within. We must do something to stop this drug problem. So what are we going to do?
I’m just a retired cop, but the answer seems pretty darn simple to me. Because the drug problem in this country always has been, and it always will be, simple economics. It’s supply and demand. Well, now, if attacking the supply side of America’s drug problem has not, and will not work, isn’t the solution simple basic logic? What we need to do instead, is to begin attacking the demand side of America’s drug problem! Well now, if we are going to attack the demand side of America’s drug problem; let me ask you this question, “Where is the largest concentration of demand for drugs in this country”? Because, if we are going to attack the demand side of the drug problem, doesn’t it make sense to attack it at the largest concentration of demand? So where is the largest concentration of demand for drugs in this country? It’s in one place. No, it’s not the schools.
For the last 10 years in a row, the National Institute on Drug Abuse has reported, and they found this through their national household surveys; for the last 10 years in a row, they have reported that 77 percent of the people who use illegal drugs in the United States of America are EMPLOYED. Let me repeat that; it’s an awful big number, 77 percent of the people who use illegal drugs; in this country work somewhere. There is an invisible empire of drug users, drug dealers, and drug addicts in the American workplace.
There truly is an invisible empire of drug users, drug dealers, and drug addicts in the American workplace. Now, I know that’s hard for some people to believe, because it’s invisible, and since they can’t see it, as far as they’re concerned, it does not exist. Oh, yes, it does exist, my friends, I promise you .it exists. I know it exists, because I moved within that empire every day for 11 years while I was working undercover. Give me just a minute to convince you why this is true. You see, a drug dealer would much rather sell his or her drugs at work. Why is that? Several reasons. First and foremost, it greatly reduces the risk of being arrested. If all he or she has to do is load the dope in the trunk of their car and drive to one place – to work – stick the drugs in their locker and sell to their co-workers, that means that they don’t have to put all that dope in their car and drive all over town to points A, B, C, D, E, F and G, delivering to their customers, taking a chance that while doing so they might be involved in an accident and the police will discover the drugs and take them to jail. Or that they might inadvertently commit some minor traffic violation and some sharp police office will stop them and find the drugs and arrest them. They don’t have to worry about all that so much if they only have to go to one place to sell their drugs.
By selling drugs at work, the drug dealer has immediate access to a wide customer base. Now, people who are in business understand the importance of being close to their customers, right? So do the drug dealers. You see, it’s so easy to bring your dope to work, stick it in your toolbox, sell to your co-workers, and say to them; here’s your pot, here’s your coke, here’s your acid, here’s your ecstasy. Why, you can even extend credit to your customers at work, because you know where they’re going to be on Friday when they get paid, and you can go collect your money. Try that out on the street. If you “front” your dope on the streets, you’re never going to see your drugs or your money again. You’re going to get ‘ripped off’. That’s another reason people like to buy and sell drugs at work. It’s just so much safer because, you see, a co-worker is not going to pull a gun and say; “Give me your drugs and your money”. That does not happen at work. Now that does happen every day, out on street corners, all across America people are killed over twenty dollars worth of crack cocaine. But not at work. It’s just much safer to buy and sell drugs at work.
By buying and selling drugs at work, the drug dealer and the drug buyer are insulated from law enforcement, because law enforcement does not police the workplace. Law enforcement polices the streets, and they’ve got their hands full out there. They don’t have the manpower, the finances, or the resources to police every little workplace. When is the last time you saw a patrol car pull up in front of your place of business, and a police officer get out to walk through and make sure there’s no drug dealing going on? That is not how it’s designed, and I promise you the drug dealer and the drug buyer know that. They know that the workplace is a little “free zone” for buying and selling drugs.
If I had much more space to write here, I’ll bet I could convince each and every reader that there truly is this invisible empire of drug users, drug dealers, and drug addicts in the American workplace. And I’m firmly convinced, based on my 15 years law enforcement experience, 11 of those years spent working undercover, and living with drug users and drug dealers and drug addicts, and my 13 years experience as the state director of this drug-free workplace program, Drugs Don’t Work, I am absolutely convinced, if we could simply get every single business in the state of Georgia to just become a drug-free workplace, I believe we could reduce the drug and the crime problem in this state by 77 percent. Because, folks, the drug and the crime problem are one and the same. You ask any law enforcement officer out there; he’ll tell you that’s true. So why don’t we start right here in Warner Robins? It’s as good a place as any. It’s right in the central part of the state. Why don’t all of us in this room right now agree that we’re gonna go out here and we’re gonna help Bruce to call on every single company in Warner Robins. And we’re gonna talk to those business owners about the importance of having a drug-free workplace. So we’re gonna convince them of the importance of this. Now if we did that, let me tell you what would happen. We would reduce the drug and the crime problem in Warner Robins, Georgia by 77 percent. I guarantee you your local law enforcement can take care of that other 23 percent. And Warner Robins, Georgia could become the only truly drug free, crime free community in the United States of America. You could stand as a shining example to the rest of the country, and say “Hey America, look what we did. We are drug and crime free.” And when America said, Warner Robins, how on earth did you do that? Your answer would be simple: If you do business in Warner Robins, Georgia, you’re a drug-free workplace or you don’t do business here. Folks, there’s an answer to your drug problem in this community, if you care. And I know that you do. I know that you want to clean up your back yard, here, to give your children a safe, drug-free work environment in which to grow up, a safe-drug free environment in which to grow up. And I know that you want to get these workplaces drug free, so that when they enter the workforce, they will be going to work in a safe, drug-free work environment. And, ya’ll, don’t we all have that right; seriously, don’t we all have a right to work in a safe, drug-free work environment. You know, sometimes when we implement this program in a company, we’ll have employees who whine and cry, and moan and groan. And they’ll say things like this. They’ll say, “You’re not gonna drug test me; that’s an invasion of my privacy.” Or they’ll say, “You can’t drug test me; that’s a violation of my civil rights.” And when they say that, you know what I do? I get in their face. And I say, “Oh really; you want to talk about rights? Ok, let’s talk about your co-workers’ rights to work in a safe, drug-free work environment, which overrides your so-called supposed right to get high.” And then I remind them – no one actually has a right to get high, even in their own home. ‘Cause last time I checked, illegal drugs were still illegal. Right? And then I tell them, “You think you have a right to do that? Obviously, you have never even seen the Constitution of the United States of America. You have no clue what that document says. You do not have a right to get high.” And then I tell them there’s 20 years of case law that says that a private employer has every right in the world to drug test their employees. You know, ya’ll, we’ve known for years, now, through extensive research, and this is research, ironically, that was conducted by our federal government, and paid for with your tax dollars. And that research has proven, unequivocally, that the most cost-efficient and the most effective ways of combating substance abuse and drug-related crime, is through drug prevention (stopping it before it ever starts), drug treatment (getting those who are already addicted well), and drug education. Drug prevention, drug treatment, and drug education. Now the research proves, the government’s own research that you pay for with your tax dollars; proves that interdiction (stopping drugs at the source) is not the solution. Research proved that. The government knows that doesn’t work, and yet they continue to spend billions and billions of dollars on interdiction efforts. The research proved incarceration is not the solution. Putting people in jail does not work. I know that personally because, during my law enforcement career, I put literally thousands of people in jail, just to watch them get right back out the next day, and start using and dealing drugs again. That never has been, never will be the answer. But the solution is simple. It’s drug prevention, drug treatment, and drug education. Guess what? When you have a drug-free workplace program, you have all three of those elements: drug prevention, drug treatment, and drug education. Let me mentions something to you very briefly about the importance of drug education. There’s an organization called PRIDE. It stands for the Parents Resource Institute on Drug Education. It’s a nation-wide, very conservative, very well respected organization. They have found through national household surveys, they have found that children of parents who sit down and talk to them about the dangers of drug abuse, consistently now, over a long period of time, when parents sit down and talk to their children about the dangers of drug abuse, those children are 60 percent less likely to ever become drug abusers. Did you hear that, moms and dads? If we just talk to those babies about the dangers of drug abuse. How many of ya’ll have kids? Wow! What have ya’ll been doing here in Warner Robins? Making those babies. I’m not going to ask you have talked to your kids about drugs, because I already know the truth. Most parents haven’t. That’s OK. I know why you haven’t. It’s either that you don’t know what to say, or you’re afraid you’ll say the wrong thing. But let me tell you something very sad, moms and dads. If we had an absolutely free seminar right here in Warner Robins, and we advertised it for months, on radio, TV, billboards, newspaper, and magazine ads. And we said, Moms and daddies, come on down here to Warner Robins Chamber on Tuesday evening from 6:30 to 7:30, take one tiny hour our of your awful busy lives and attend an absolutely free seminar, we’re not going to charge you a nickel for it. And if you do that, I guarantee you I will teach you how to keep your children drug- and alcohol-free. Now if we did that, if we offered that free seminar, how many people do you think would show up? (About 50?) Oh my goodness. Ma’am, I’m sorry. If three whole human beings showed up – I’m serious, I’d have a heart attack. I mean, really. Have an ambulance standing by to take me to the hospital, because I’m going into shock if three whole human beings show up. Now I know that’s harsh; I know that’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Let me tell you how I know it’s true. You see, I offered those free seminars, on my own time, all over the state of Georgia, and no one attended. As a matter of fact, in my little home town of Kennesaw, Georgia, I personally went door to door and handed out 1500 invitations to parents, inviting them to come to our local church on a Saturday morning for an absolutely free one-hour seminar where they would be guaranteed that they would learn how to keep their kids drug- and alcohol-free. Personally went door to door and handed out one thousand five hundred invitations. On the morning of the seminar, do you know how many people showed up? Zero. Don’t be shocked. You see, these parents have more important things to do. They would rather watch SpongeBob on TV than keep their kids drug-free. Well, that is, of course, until you become the parent of a drug-abusing child. That is the worst nightmare that can happen to a human being on the face of this planet. Because there will be long periods of time when you won’t even know if that child is dead or alive. You’ll have no idea where they are. If they do finally show back up at your home, they’ll bring their drug-abusing friends with them and they will steal you blind. As that child is growing up, local law enforcement will have your address committed to memory from having to answer so many calls at your house, because of problems caused by that child. The local school system, the principle and teachers there, will know you on sight from you having to be called to that school so many times to deal with issues that child has created there at school. The local juvenile justice court system, the juvenile judge, and everybody in the juvenile justice system will know your family because of problems that that child’s caused, costing you have to go stand with that child before that judge so many times because of crimes that child has committed because of that drug-abusing behavior. Yeah, being the parent of a drug-abusing child really is the worst nightmare that can happen to a human being on the face of this planet. But you know what? Moms and dads are just too busy to make sure that that never happens. They’ve just got too many more important things to do than to learn how to keep their kids drug-free. Hey, but listen to this. One of the five simple requirements of being a state-certified drug-free workplace here in Georgia is that the employer must provide drug education every year to every one of their employees. Now, when the boss says, I want you all to read this monthly newsletter on substance abuse and sign it and bring it back in to me. Or if the boss says, I want you to all come and sit through an hour of drug education, guess what happens. They pack the house. You know how I know? Because I’ve done that training for thousands and thousands of employees at hundreds and hundreds of companies all over the state of Georgia. And every time, when I’m done, I always have parents come up to me afterwards. And they say things like this. They say, “Oh my gosh, I didn’t know that about substance abuse.” Or they say, “Oh my goodness, I didn’t understand that about how drug addiction works.” And then they always ask me this question. They say, “Is that information available to my child?” And I say sure it is mom and dad. Just go home and talk to them about it. You see, ya’ll, that’s the only way we’re going to get this drug education to these parents. Especially the parents of these at-risk children. Because these parents will not attend a free seminar, believe me we’ve tried. We can’t get this drug education to these parents through school, they don’t go to school anymore. We can’t get this drug education to these parents through the church; even if they attend church, there are no programs like this available in church. The workplace is the only viable delivery vehicle of this drug education to these working parents so it can have a trickle-down affect to their children so it can help keep America’s future and America’s future workforce drug-free. So, for all these reasons and more, that I don’t have time to go into today, I’m absolutely convinced that drug-free workplace programs are the solution to the drug problem in this country. However, can you guess what happens when I, or one of my 64 Drugs Don’t Work coordinators, like Bruce, here, around this state, goes in and sits down one on one with a business owner and we tell them everything I just told ya’ll about the importance of having a drug-free workplace? Can you guess what happens when we tell them that we want them to implement a drug-free workplace so that they can help reduce the drug and crime problem in their neighborhood and their community? Can you guess what happens when we tell them that we want them to implement a drug-free workplace so that they can provide this much needed drug prevention, drug treatment and drug education to their employees? Can you guess what happens when we show them how that’s drug education those employees can share with their children and help keep those babies drug free? Can you guess what happens when we tell these business owners that we want them to implement a drug-free workplace so that in this way they can give back to their community a little of that which they’ve taken out in the form of profits? Can you guess what happens when we tell them we want them to stand up shoulder to shoulder with the other seven thousand state-certified drug-free workplaces in Georgia and circle the wagons against this contagious, terminal plague on our country? Can you guess what happens folks? (I don’t have a problem.) You’re one of the few, because, usually, they get extremely bored, their eyes glaze over and roll back in their head, and they kick us out of their office. Because no one ever went into business to save the world, did they, folks? So, before we go, we make sure that we share this information with them. That here in Georgia, by law, when a company goes through these five simple little steps, extremely inexpensive, virtually free. We’ve streamlined this program to the point where it’s so simple. When a company goes through these five simple steps and becomes a state-certified drug-free workplace, that company, by law, will receive a seven and a half percent discount on its workers compensation insurance premiums. That’s the law in Georgia. Now you don’t have to change insurance companies, of course, or anything difficult like that. All you have to do is fax over a copy of your certificate and, by law, they’ve got to begin giving you that seven and a half percent discount. Now, what does that translate to in bottom line dollars? Well, let’s take a construction company for example with, say, 40 employees. By going through these five simple steps and becoming state-certified as a drug-free workplace, that business would save about eleven thousand dollars every single year. Now that’s the workers comp discount alone for a construction company with 40 employees. Eleven grand a year. Now ya’ll gotta admit, that’s a pretty good little savings for a small business. But the truth is, that pails in comparison, to all the other financial reasons for being a drug-free workplace. Did you know that for more than 10 years now, all the fortune 500 companies have been drug-free workplaces? They have. Why is that? Is it because they got a discount on their workers comp insurance premiums? No. That’s only been available for a few years in a handful of states. But the reason these big boys and girls have done this, and, ya’ll, this is one of the reasons they became the big boys and girls to begin with, is because they do the right things right. And, you see, they know when you have a drug-free workplace program, you increase your productivity, you reduce your absenteeism and your tardiness, you cut your workers comp claims in half, you decrease your medical costs by 300 percent, you increase your overall workforce morale, you cut your turnover rate, you reduce theft and other forms of crime in the workplace, and all this positively affects that old infamous bottom line, and that spells M-O-N-E-Y. So, strangely, when we explain it to business owners like that, their eyes don’t glaze over and roll back in their head any more. As a matter of fact, we see little dollar signs come up in their eyes – Ka-Ching – and they sign up and become drug-free workplaces. As a result, as I’ve mentioned, we’ve helped to certify more than seven thousand companies as drug-free workplaces here in Georgia. That represents 850,000 drug-free employees. Many of those employees are parents. Every one of those employees receives drug education every single year. That’s drug education they can share with their children, and help keep America’s future and America’s future workforce drug-free. So, as I said, for all these reasons and more, I’m absolutely convinced that drug-free workplace programs are the solution to the drug problem in this country. Let me ask you guys a question. As business owners, as business people, do you think it’s at all important for you company to know if the job applicant that you’re about to hire is, oh I don’t know, say, a methamphetamine addict? You think that’s important to you? How about your current workforce; do you think that there is any need at all for you to know if your current workforce is operating at it’s peak level of productivity or not? Or maybe that they are under the influence of drugs, or hung-over so bad that they are not able to do their job, or that maybe they are stealing from you to support their drug habit? Does that seem like it would be important? Of course. It’s a rhetorical questions. Right? All right, now let me ask you this question. What is the best way for you to know if your job applicant or your employees are abusing drugs? Well, if you had someone on your staff who had 15 years of law enforcement experience, and if that person was trained in interview techniques, and if part of that training included, um, training in the science of lie detection, kinesiology (the science of lie detection), if that person was trained, for example, by Mosaid, the Israeli Secret Service, in science of lie detection, well, that person could just sit down with your job applicants and interview them. And after a few minutes of interviewing them, could be able to tell if they were being truthful about their drug or alcohol abuse. But how many companies have someone on staff like that? Very few, if any, right? If you had someone on staff that had that type of training, they would know that within the human brain are what are know as truth centers and lie centers. And that person would know that, by interviewing job applicants and employees, and watching their eye movements, they could tell if they were being truthful or not. Now I can’t teach this to ya’ll in three minutes, because it takes three months to learn, but I do want to give you all an idea of how this works, real quick. So let me get off the subject for a just a second and tell you how this works. As I said, within everybody’s brain, in it’s own individual basis, there are points known as truth centers and lie centers. And they are located in different locations in different people’s brains. But if I were to interview you for a few minutes and watch your eye movement, and I were to ask you some pre-qualifying questions, I’d be able to tell you where your truth center and your lie center were located by watching your eye movement. For example, if I were to ask you, “What is your spouse’s mother’s maiden name?” If you looked up and to the right, and thought about that for a minute and looked back at me, you’d be pulling that information from your truth center, because why would you lie about that? So then I’d know that your truth center is up and to the right. And from that, if I was to ask you, for example, “What was your previous address before you moved to your current residence?” And once again, if you looked up and to your right and thought about it, you’d be pulling information from your truth center. Again, why would you lie about that? Now you may look to the left; your truth center may be up and to the left. So, by watching your eye movement, I could tell where your truth center is located. Now, it’s rarely as obvious as I’ve made it; people rarely cut their eyes up that sharply, but some people do. Very truthful people, when they’re thinking, and when they’re pulling information from their truth center, they’ll actually cut their eyes up and to the right, or to the left, very sharply, or maybe directly over. But most people, it’s just a flicker of the pupil of the eye. That’s why it takes so long to learn how to do this. If I were then to begin asking you questions, for example, about drug abuse or alcohol abuse, and you suddenly looked down and to the left, if I’ve identified that your truth center is up and to the right, and you suddenly looked down and to the left as you answer my questions, you’d be pulling that information from your lie center. You’d be lying, right? The good thing about this technique is that it is part of the parasympathetic nerve system. That means that you cannot control it – it’s like your heart rate or your body temperature. For example, if I were to tell Nicole, just sit there quietly like you are; don’t get up and run around or anything. What I’d like you t to do for us is, I’d like for you to speed up your heart rate. Just go ahead and let us know when you’re ready. Well, of course Nicole can’t do that. Your heart rate is part of the parasympathetic system and, unless you are trained in advanced biofeedback techniques, you’re not able to do that. If I told Jessica, you sit there quietly just like her. What I’d like for you to do is raise your body temperature. It’s probably around 98.6 – just raise it up to about 101. Just tell us when you’re ready, and we’ll take your temperature and see if you’ve done it. Well of course, she can’t – it’s part of the parasympathetic nervous system; she can’t control that. So is this eye movement – it’s part of the parasympathetic nervous system; you can’t control it. I can tell you you’re doing it and you can’t control it. So if I’m interviewing you, and I’m watching your eye movement, and I’m asking you questions, the only way for you to keep me from knowing if you’re lying is to close your eyes. And if you do that, guess what – you’re not telling the truth. So, once again, if you had someone on your staff whose trained in these interview techniques, then you could just have that person interview your job applicants or your employees and they would know if they were lying or not. I happen to have 15 years of experience in interview techniques; it’s my specialty during my law enforcement career. I have more training in interview techniques than in any other area of law enforcement. So if you had someone on staff who was trained in a technique called SCAN, which stands for Statement Content Analysis, and that person could interview your job applicants and employees, then they could listen to their rate of speech, you know, the number of words they speak per minute on average. They could listen to their inflection, the inflection of their voice as they speak, the tone of their voice. And as they were interviewing them, they would watch for changes in their rate of speech, changes the inflection or tone, changes in whether or not they use proper grammar or they slip into street slang or vice versa. Any kind of change like that is an indication that that person has begun to lie at that point. Again, though, how many companies have someone on staff like that? Very few, if any. If you had someone was trained in reading body language, well they could simply interview your applicants and your employees and, by reading their body language, they would know if they were being truthful or not. Now there are of people who have read a book or two on reading body language, and they know just about enough to shoot themselves in the foot. And they’ll tell you that if you’re interviewing someone and they suddenly cross their arms, that means that they are being very negative to you, very closed up to what you are saying, and that they intend to lie – that they’re going to be deceptive. No, it just means that, like Nicole or this young lady here, they’re a little bit chilly. That’s all that means. These people will tell you if you’re interviewing someone and they suddenly cross their legs or they cross their ankles, it means the same thing – that they are going to withhold information, that they are going to lie. No, it just means that this young lady and that young lady are comfortable with their legs crossed. That’s all it means – you can’t read too much into it. It takes extensive training and application in the real world of interviewing suspects and victims and witnesses, and learning how to do this, to read body language correctly. And that’s why I’m looking at each of you intently as I’m speaking. I’ve looked at each of you for several seconds at a time as I’ve been speaking, and the reason for that is I’m reading your body language. Why? Because I’m curious about what you think of this presentation. Now I have to qualify that, and I’m going to sound like a jerk when I say this, so I apologize to you up front. But, quite frankly, I don’t really care what you think of this presentation. Every one of you could get up and walk out on me and I’d just keep talking to Bruce. But, you see, I’ve been doing this for a long, long time, and I got my heart broke in two years and years ago when I realized that very few people care anything at all about the drug problem in this country. And that’s one of the reasons that we’re in the situation we are in, because there’s too much apathy – nobody even cares. So I know when I’m speaking to a group of people about how I believe the drug-free workplace programs are the solution to the drug problem, I know that there are always people there that are thinking, this guy’s insane. What kind of pie in the sky dream has he got going on here? What kind of panacea is he pushing? Drug-free workplace as the solution to this country’s drug problem? That’s crazy! That will never work. You know what folks? If you think it won’t work, well, gosh, I guess it won’t. But, you know what? If enough people think it might work, well maybe it has a chance. The only thing I ask – just do me a favor and never, ever doubt that a small group of committed, dedicated individuals could change the whole world. Because, you know what? That’s the only thing that ever has. So if you had someone on staff that could read body language, well they could interview applicants and employees and know if they are lying or not. But how many companies have someone on staff like that? Very few, if any. With statement content analysis, you can conduct an interview. For example, if I suspected Bruce of robbing a liquor store here in Warner Robins yesterday at two o’clock. If I was a local law enforcement officer, I’d just bring Bruce in and I’d have a chat with him – we’d just talk for a few minutes. And without asking him any direct questions, by reading his body language, watching his eye movement, listening to the things that he says, I’d be able to tell you a great deal about Bruce. I could tell you a lot about his upbringing. I could tell you a lot about his education – his educational level. I could tell you a lot about his cultural background. I could tell you a lot about his religious background, if there was one, just by listening to the things he says, not by asking those questions directly. So after talking to Bruce for a while and getting some information, some basing information from watching him (excuse me) listening to him, I’d begin to talk to him about the liquor store robbery yesterday. And what I’d say is, “Bruce, I need to know that you did not rob that liquor store. So what I need you to do, is I need you to tell me everything you did yesterday from the time you got up in the morning until the time you went to bed last night. And I want you to write that down for me. Then I would hand him a legal pad and I would hand him a writing utensil, and I would look at the way he grips that pen or that pencil. That’s gonna tell me a great deal immediately about whether or not he’s gonna be truthful. Then I would watch him as he writes out his statement. And when he’s done with that statement, I would take that statement, and I would look at it, and I would look at it under a magnifying glass. Because as someone begins to write a lie, they subconsciously press down harder. Now, you can’t see that with the naked eye, but when you look at it under a magnifying glass, it becomes so obvious it’s comical. You can see where the lie begins and where the lie ends, because the writing gets darker and lighter as they write that lie. So then I would take that statement and I would interview Bruce on what he had just written. And I would take it out of chronological order. I’d say, “OK, Bruce, you wrote down that you woke up at 7 o’clock yesterday morning and you ate some Lucky Charms. You went and visited your mama. What I’d like for you to do now, Bruce, and I’m looking at the statement you just wrote; tell me what you did from 10 o’clock until 11.” And I’m going to see if what he says matches up with what he just wrote. Now, again, I’m going to take it out of chronological order, I’m going to skip around. And I’ll say, “OK, now, Bruce, tell me what you did from 3:30 to 4:30.” And he’s going to tell me. And I’ll say, “Now tell me what you did from 9 until 9:30. Now, Bruce, tell me what you did from 1:30 until 2:30.” Remember, the liquor store robbery occurred at 2 o’clock. By taking it out of chronological order like that; he just finished writing it, but it’s gonna trip him up; he’s gonna get messed up, because people can’t keep a lie straight when they’re writing that much information, or putting down that much information and it includes a lie. They will mess it up. And then I will point out to Bruce all the things that he had just done that indicated that he was lying. I would tell him about the eye movement that I had just witnessed, I’d tell him about his body language, I’d tell him about the different changes in his speech, as we were talking. I’d remind him that it was all being video taped. I’d show him, under magnifying glass, where his writing got darker and lighter. I would tell him how he just messed up telling me about something he’d just wrote seconds ago, how he couldn’t even keep it straight. And once you do that with a suspect, 99 percent of the time they’ll confess; they’ll say, “Yeah, you got me.” Because you also offer them a deal at that point; you say, “Listen, I’ll help you out. I’ll go before the judge with you and I’ll make a recommendation to the judge that he give you a lighter sentence. You go ahead and confess to this crime, and keep this state, this county, or this city from having to invest so much money to investigate and prove that you did it, because we both know that you did it. So, there’s a lot of ways to get people to confess. It’s all interview technique. So, again, what’s the point to have someone on staff trained in that way? Well they could interview applicants and employees to know if they’re lying or not. But how many companies have someone on staff like that? Very few, if any. Well, there is one, 100 percent foolproof way of knowing if someone is lying to you. I’m going to teach you that right now, because it will only take a few minutes to do this. But in order to teach it to you I need somebody to help me, I need somebody to come up here and help. I won’t embarrass you, I promise. I need a volunteer, I prefer it be a male. Nobody ever volunteers, so , sir, will you help me? Do you mind? (No) What’s your name? (Don) Don, I’m Chuck. Can I get you to just stand here with me in front of the group? The first thing we need to do is a little bit of a strength test, to see how strong Don is. Don, I’m going to ask you to hold your right arm out nice and straight, and I’m going to try to push your arm down. And I want you to prevent me from doing that. You don’t have any back or shoulder injuries, do you? (No) Whenever you’re ready we’ll try it and see how strong you are. Are you ready? (Yes) (Chuck pushes and arm doesn’t go down) Gosh! Alright, relax for a second. The reason that I’m doing this is, the way that the good Lord designed as human beings, He designed us to tell the truth. When we step off of that natural default response, and we lie, it causes enormous changes in our body. The reason is, our body has to send chemicals up to our brain, certain hormones and certain chemicals, we’re all made up of a bunch of hormones and chemicals. And it has to send these chemicals up to our brain in order for us to tell and maintain a lie. And when it does that, it weakens the body. So I’m going to show you what I mean. You’re name’s Don, right? Or that’s what everybody calls you? OK, Don, so hold your arm out and, three times in a row, make a truthful statement. Say, “My name is Don, my name is Don, my name is Don.” And don’t let me push your arm down. OK, when you’re ready. (My name is Don, my name is Don, my name is Don) (Chuck pushes and arm doesn’t go down) Alright, relax. I’m going to let Don rest for a second. And now, in just a minute, I’m going to ask Don to intentionally tell a lie, and we’ll see what happens. Now Don, your name’s not George is it? (No) So what I want you to do whenever you’re ready, no hurry, is stick your arm out stiff and straight again and, three times in a row, intentionally tell a lie. Say, “My name is George, my name is George, my name is George.” And do not let me push your arm down. Whenever you’re ready. (My name is George, my name is George, my name is George) (Chuck pushes and arm goes down easily) Thanks, Don. I appreciate that. Alright folks, that’s 100 percent foolproof way of knowing if somebody’s lying. And, yes, you can use that at home. But here’s what I do not want you to do, friends, please. Do not go home and say, “Honey, stand up and hold out your arm,” and then ask your spouse this question, “Have you ever been unfaithful?” Because, ladies and gentlemen, I do not want to be responsible for any divorces. So, what’s the point of all this. If you have someone on your staff that’s trained in lie-detecting techniques, they can interview your applicants and employees and know if they are using drugs or not. So what is the much more realistic, much more cost efficient, much more effective way of knowing if your job applicants are using drugs or not. A drug test. How much does a drug test cost on average? Up in the metro area it’s around twenty bucks. Maybe a little more here, maybe around thirty dollars. So for around 20 or 30 bucks you can have the peace of mind of knowing if that person you are about to hire is a drug user or not. 20 or 30 dollars, you can the peace of mind of knowing if your workforce is operating at its peak level of productivity.

What I want to do now is take just a minute and talk to you about the disease of addiction. This is really important. I really want folks to understand about how addiction works on the brain. Medical science has proven that addiction is a disease. They’ve proven it’s a disease just like any other disease, just like cancer, just likes AIDS, just like heart disease. It’s actually more like Alzheimer’s, because it’s a disease of the brain. It’s a brain disease; they’ve proven that. OK? And eighty percent of the addicted population, eighty percent of people who are addicted, are that way because of this genetic, or medical, model of addiction. So what medical science has proven is that there are two different types of drug addicts. When I say drug addict, I also mean alcoholic. So addict and alcoholic are interchangeable terms; it means the same thing. There are two types; there is a type 1 and a type 2. Medical science has proven that in the type 2 drug addict situation, these people, these types of drug addicts, have inherited an addictive gene from somewhere in their family. And this addictive gene, if it’s in their body, they have no way of knowing it’s this addictive gene in their body. You can’t x-ray them, I can’t take Don and x-ray him and pin up his x-ray right here and go, Don, you’ve got the addictive gene. I’m sorry to tell you. There’s that bad boy right under your arm. It doesn’t work that way. You know, we can’t take Nicole down here to the hospital and run a set of chemical tests on her and come back and go, Nicole, we’ve got the result of your tests back. I’m sorry, you’re positive for the addictive gene; it’s in your body. So there’s no way of knowing if you have the addictive gene in your body or not. I mean, look around the room at the people in here right now. Can you pick out who in this room has the addictive gene? Of course not; there’s no outward sign of having the addictive gene. Until, of course, you become a drug addict or alcoholic. Then there’s an outward sign, right? And then it’s too late. Because once you become an addict or alcoholic, you are an addict or alcoholic for life. Now you may be currently in recovery. You may not be using at this moment. But you still suffer from the disease - it’s a lifetime disease. An addiction is a chronic, progressive disease. If you continue using drugs or alcohol, you will get worse and worse. Unless something breaks the cycle of addiction, you know, when you go into recovery, you will just consistently, progressively get worse. So medical science has proven that eighty percent of the addicted population is addicted because of this genetic model of addiction. And the type 2 drug addicts and alcoholics, they’ve inherited this addictive gene from somewhere in their family. And sometimes it can skip a generation. So maybe the gene passed from the grandparents, you know, from the grandmother or the grandfather, skipped a generation, and one of the grandkids got it. It can pass from an aunt or an uncle to somewhere in the family. There’s no way of knowing if you have the addictive gene or not. And, you know what, I have never heard anybody say, I’ve made a decision. I think what I’d like to do for the rest of my life, what I’d like to do is be a drug addict. Never had anybody say that. I’ve never heard anybody say, I’ve made a career choice. I think what I’d like to do for a living is be an alcoholic. I’ve looked at the way they lay in the gutter with puke all over them and, well, that’s just what I want to do. Never heard anybody consciously decide to become a drug addict or alcoholic. But millions of people every year do become drug addicts and alcoholics, don’t they? Why? Eighty percent of the time, it’s because they have this addictive gene in their body. In the type 2 drug addict situation this addictive gene usually turns on or becomes active in the late teens or the early twenties. That’s why there are some people who can drink a keg of beer every week that they’re in high school and they don’t become an alcoholic. Or they smoke a joint every day that they’re in college and they don’t become addicted to marijuana. Why? Because they graduate from high school or college, they enter the workforce, and hopefully they stop that childish behavior. And, so they escape addiction because the gene has not turned on or become active yet. If they continued that lifestyle, and the gene became active, they would become a drug addict or an alcoholic. Now, the type 1 drug addict - Much, Much more severe. In this case, this addictive gene passes only from the father to the son, and it surfaces after age 11. So that means if you’re a man, and your daddy had a drug or alcohol problem, medical science has proven the chance that you have that addictive gene in your body is extremely high - it’s above 98 percent. Ladies, if you have a male child, and his dad had a drug or alcohol problem, the chance of that male child having that addictive gene is above 98 percent, and it will surface after age 11. Here’s what that means. If that child takes a sip of an alcoholic beverage or uses an illegal drug - the first time, that kicks on that addictive gene. Immediately. Best way I know how to describe this in layman’s terms is that it’s kind of like an allergic reaction. That’s not a really good description, but it’s the best way I know of explaining it. You know, there are some people who are allergic to bee stings, right? Anybody in here allergic to bee stings? (one person raises hand) One person out of all of us, right? Now, I don’t know how severe it is, but if you get stung, if we don’t get you to the hospital you may go into anaphylactic shock; is that right? It could be fatal. Some people are allergic to seafood. Anybody allergic to seafood? ( one person raises hand ) Some people are so allergic to seafood, they eat a piece of shrimp, a piece of shell fish especially, their throat will swell up and they can’t breathe and they have to go to the hospital. Now not all of us are allergic to bee stings, not all of us are allergic to seafood. But you see that there are a couple of people here that are. Well, not all of us suffer from the type 1 addictive gene. Not all of us. So maybe, as you were growing up, you drank some beer, you know, your teenage years, you know. You may still drink, you know. You may have smoked some pot or done some drugs, and you didn’t become a drug addict or alcoholic. Why? Because you are part of the twenty percent of the population that did not have the addictive gene in your body. Now, if you have a male child, and his father was a drug addict or an alcoholic, let me ask you something, moms and dads. Does that child have a right to know that he is at much greater risk than the rest of the population (I think so. [from audience]) Absolutely. Wouldn’t it be terrible not to tell him that? I mean, don’t you have a responsibility as a parent to sit that child down and say, Son, listen, your daddy was a drug addict, or your daddy was an alcoholic. He may be recovered now, but he was. That means you’ve got this addictive gene. You cannot play around with drinking and drugs. When your friends start drinking and they say, “Here, lets try this six-pack”, you can’t do it. Because the first time you take that sip of alcoholic beverage it could kick on that addictive gene, and once you’re a drug addict or alcoholic your life is ruined - it’s for the rest of you life. So you see, here in America, underage drinking, for example - it’s is deeply imbedded in American culture. It’s considered a rite of passage. And when parents know that their kids are drinking underage, you know what they do? They kind of nudge each other, they grin, and say aren’t they cute? You know. They’re drinking, they’re growing up; he’s becoming a man. Man, you can’t do that. Because you can’t look at a child and know if they have the addictive gene or not. There’s no outward way of knowing. And, so if you encourage them and say, “Here, see if you like the taste of beer”, hoping that won’t like the taste and that they’ll never drink - biggest mistake you can make. It could kick on the addiction gene right there. If you think, “Well, you know, all the other kids are going down to Panama City, you know, for spring break. And I know that they are all going to be drinking and having a good time. And, dad blame it, I just don’t want my child to miss out on that. That’s a lot of fun. I did that when I was young. I just don’t want my kid to miss out on that. I’m going to go ahead and give him some money and encourage him to have some fun. Just be careful, you know.” Have you heard about that couple that was celebrating prom week or whatever and they were having a party? Did you hear about that? They had a party and bought a keg; mom and dad bought a keg. Police raided them, and arrested them - busted mom and dad and took them to jail. And they deserved to be arrested. Because, you know what mom and dad’s excuse was? Well, we wanted them to do it here at home. Because if they went on their own, we knew they’d be drinking and driving, and they could get hurt and they could kill somebody. OK, well I understand that. But, good grief, they’re providing alcohol, illegally providing alcohol for underage children. When an adolescent brain gets soaked in alcohol, you’re going to have some dire consequences. Because an adolescent brain is still forming, up until about the age of 21 or 22. That brain is not a completely mature brain. It’s still being formed. Now if you soak it in alcohol, you’re going to have some serious problems, and among them could be, that person becoming a drug addict or alcoholic. So have to change the whole culture in America. We’ve gotta change the social attitude about underage drinking. So let me just ask ya’ll this question real quick. Is it possible to do that? Is it possible to change attitudes? A whole nation’s attitude; can it be done? Well, it’s been done before. Let’s take drunk driving, for example. You know, 30 years ago, it was socially acceptable to come to work and tell your co-worker how you got so knee-walking drunk the night before you don’t even know how you drove home. “I don’t even remember how I got home.” And people would laugh about it. You can’t do that any more. That is not socially acceptable. We’d be too embarrassed to tell our co-worker that. Right? Why? Why is it not socially acceptable anymore? Because of one woman in California who said that’s enough. Her thirteen-year-old daughter, walking down the sidewalk, got hit and killed by a drunk driver. And she said that’s it – no more drunk driving. She took a stand. She started an organization called MADD – mothers against drunk driving, which swept the nation. They began to lobby to pass laws, they began to monitor the court systems, and what happened? They changed social attitudes about drinking and driving. So it’s possible to change social attitudes. How do we do that? We have to do that through education. We have to get information, for example, in the hands of parents that tells them what I just told y’all about the dangers of encouraging a child or allowing a child to drink alcohol, not knowing whether they have the addictive gene or not. You know, we have to explain to them what happens when an adolescent brain is soaked in alcohol, how it can have such dire consequences. We’ve gotta change this attitude that underage drinking is a rite of passage in this country. So we’ve got to get this education to these parents. How are we gonna do it? (Talk to them) Well, I’d love to; I wish they’d come listen to me. But they don’t. I’ve tried it, over and over and over. Alright, if they won’t come to us to get this information, well, by golly, let’s take it to them. Let’s take it to them where they are. Where do people congregate in large groups? Work, the workplace, and church. So at least through the workplace and faith-based community we need to be getting this information out to parents so that we can change this social attitude. What I’d like to do now is tell you how addiction works on the brain. Within the human brain, there are billions of brain cells. And those millions of brain cells process information. A human brain can only process information in two ways. One way is through an electrical-like impulse. So if I touch this table, that sense of touch is translated into an electrical impulse. And that electrical impulse runs up my nervous system – runs up my arm, up my shoulder, into my brain, and into my billions of brains cells. And in this soma of the body of the cell – there are all these nerve cell endings called dendrites that come off of these brain cells. These brain cells face each other within our brain. So that electrical impulse is going to run into my brain, into that brain cell, out those little nerve cell endings, and it’s going to jump, like a bolt of lightning, across this gap in-between these brain cells. That gap is called the synaptic cleft. That electrical impulse is going to go into the other brain cells, my brain is going to process that information and, in less than a millisecond, tell me that’s a table. That’s one way the human brain processes information. The human brain can only process information in one other way, and that’s chemically, or / hormonally, but it’s the same thing. We’re all made up of a bunch of chemicals and hormones, and those chemicals and hormones affect the way we think, the way we feel, the way we act, and the way we react. If you doubt that - gentlemen, what happens to a woman once a month? Her estrogen level drops in her body. Can that affect the way she thinks, acts, feels or reacts? C’mon, guys. Don’t be afraid, you can say it. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve seen their eyes start spinning. What do you call that? PMS. Right? Pre-menstrual syndrome. It’s because of a drop in estrogen, and possibly progesterone, in a woman’s body. So you see that’s how it can affect the way she thinks, acts, feels and reacts - that little change in that chemical in her body. Well, ladies, what about us? What about men? What about when we get in our mid-fifties, what happens to us? Well, our testosterone level drops. They call that the male mid-life crisis. What happens? We lose our minds. We start buying sports cars and Harley Davidsons, and we try to date nineteen year olds. It’s gotten so bad, medical science has had to developed a testosterone patch. It’s like a nicotine patch. It delivers a measured dose of testosterone to the brains of these men in their mid-fifties, so that they won’t lose their minds. I’m not going to tell you where they have to wear it, but they have to wear it 24 hours a day to keep them from acting crazy. So you see what a drop in estrogen or progesterone or testosterone can do to a human being, right? Well, there are so many other chemicals and hormones that affect the way we think, act, feel and react. For example, there’s epinephrine, there’s norepinephrine. You might not have heard of those, but I know you’ve heard of this one - adrenaline. Everybody’s heard of adrenaline, right? What happens when adrenaline courses through the blood system and enters a human being’s brain? What happens? It causes what’s known as the fight or flight syndrome. When a human being gets very scared or very terrified, they’re either gonna immediately begin to fight, or they’re gonna run away. Right? Fight or flight syndrome. As a matter of fact, I’m sure you’ve heard the story, and it’s a true story, of the wife who comes out into the garage where her husband’s been working on the car. He’s got it up on jacks. Maybe he’s doing a brake job and possibly an oil change at the same time. For some stupid reason the jacks fall, and the car falls on the husband and is crushing his chest. You’ve heard this story, right? It’s true. The woman hears her husband’s screams. She comes out into the garage. She sees this. She grabs that several thousand pound automobile and she lifts it up off of her husband. Now, is that humanly possible? Of course not. It’s not physically, humanly possible to do that. But she does it. Why? Because, in that moment, adrenaline courses through her body, floods her brain, and it gives her super-human strength in that moment. So, she separates her wrists, and her elbows, and her shoulders, you know. She breaks her forearms when she does that. It causes an enormous amount of pain, but she doesn’t feel it at that moment because of the adrenaline coursing through her body. So, you see what all these chemicals can do - estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, epinephrine, norepinephrine and adrenaline. They affect the way we think, act, feel or react, right? There’s another chemical called phenyl ethylamine, and, unless you’ve heard this presentation before, maybe you haven’t heard of phenyl ethylamine. So, I’ll tell you what it will do for you. Phenyl ethylamine is a brain amphetamine, it is produced naturally by the human body. And when it is produced, it makes you feel a certain way. Now, most people think that there is such a thing called love between humans. Bad news. There’s no such thing as love. All that is is a chemical/biological process; let me tell you exactly how it works. See, when you see someone that you are attracted to, medical science has proven that that causes a process called imprinting. We imprint on a certain type of person. We all have a certain type. Whether you realize it or not, you do have a certain type you’re attracted to. That’s called imprinting. In my case, it’s petite brunettes. I’ve always been extremely attracted to petite brunettes all my life. My wife is five foot tall, weights 95 pounds, and has dark brown hair. That’s the only kind of woman I’ve ever dated. Now, I don’t know why that is. It may be the nurse that helped deliver me when I was born was a short brown-haired woman. It may be that the kindergarten teacher who gave me cookies when I was a little boy was a little woman with brown hair. I don’t know. I like petite brunettes. Some men, on the other hand, happen to like tall blondes with long legs. Some ladies happen to like big, strong body building type men. Some women like tall, dark and handsome guys. Some women like short, fat, bald guys. Any short, fat, bald guys in here? So scientists don’t know why, yet, that we imprint on a certain type of individual. But the fact is, we do. And when we see that type of person and we get close to them and we begin to know them and begin to spend time with them, that causes phenyl ethylamine to be produced in our body. Phenyl ethylamine is a brain amphetamine, and it floods our brain, and when that happens it makes us feel a certain way when we’re with that person. It might actually, physically make your hands shake when you’re around that person. It might make your palms sweat. It definitely makes your heart beat faster. You know what I mean? It gets to where you don’t want to eat, you don’t want to sleep, you don’t want to work; you just want to be with that person. They call it love, but it’s just a chemical/biological process. And here’s the problem with it. One adult human being can only cause phenyl ethylamine to be produced in another adult human being for a limited time. Science has proven that it’s a limited time of about a year and a half to three years, but three years is the maximum. So, here’s what that means. After three years with that person, no more phenyl ethylamine. You’re not gonna get that same PEA, it’s abbreviated PEA, you’re not going to get that same PEA kick. It’s not going to happen. So, guys, here’s what that means. If you’ve been with that woman for three years, I don’t care if you come home and she’s butt naked, wrapped in cellophane. You’re not going to get that same PEA kick. It’s gone; it’s never coming back. And when that happens, you miss that feeling, and you want it back. And the only way to get that feeling back is to go imprint on somebody else. And that’s why the divorce rate and the adultery rate are so high among human beings. So you see all these chemicals and hormones can do? Or do you see how they affect the way we think, act, feel or react? There’s one more I want to talk about, and then I’ll get back on subject here. This chemical is called oxytocin. Now, (not oxycontin; oxycontin is the bad drug that everybody’s been abusing for such a long period of time. Oxytocin is a hormone. It’s the same hormone that causes a let-down of milk into the breasts of women who are pregnant so that they can breast-feed their child. And when the infant’s born, the mother holds that child, she cuddles it. This cuddling motion, it nuzzles the breast, a cuddling motion actually is what causes oxytocin to be produced, and creates breast milk so the infant can breast feed. They call it the cuddle chemical, because it’s the cuddling motion, the cuddling feeling that causes this oxytocin to be produced in the human body. Now, one adult human being can cause oxytocin to be produced in another adult human being, and that’s limitless; it’s endless; it goes on forever. It’s not like phenyl ethylamine, that can end after three years. This goes on forever. So, here’s what happens when oxytocin is produced in our body. When we’re with someone, hopefully of the opposite sex, and oxytocin is being produced in our body, it makes us want to do certain things with that person. It makes us want to cuddle and hug them. It makes us want to kiss them. And, as a matter of fact, here’s what happens after sex. After sex, because of a man’s physiological makeup, his oxytocin levels crash. He ain’t got none. Probably because he just got some. A woman, on the other hand, her oxytocin levels are extremely high. So what happens after sex, guys? They want to cuddle, and what do we want to do? Turn over and go to sleep, because we’ve got no oxytocin. So, ladies, if ya’ll didn’t learn anything else today, you learned this. If you can keep that man awake for about twenty minutes, his oxytocin levels will come back up again and he’ll cuddle with you. I promise you it works - let me tell you how I know it works. Because I had a lady call me one time after one of these trainings. And she said, “You know what? Me and my husband been married for 15 years and, dad blame him, used to always turn over and go to sleep.” And she said, “But I did what you told me.” She said, “I drug him to the refrigerator and stuck a sandwich in his mouth.” She said, “I got him to smoke a cigar and, sure enough, after about 20 minutes, that old rascal got frisky again. So, ladies, ya’ll give that a try and see what I mean. All right, what does this have to do with a drug-free workplace? What does this have to do with the disease of addiction? The point is this: all these chemicals and hormones affect the way we think, the way we feel, the way we act, and the way we react, right? Well there are two chemicals that scientists have determined are your happy chemicals. Now I know it’s not a very scientific term, but I guess they couldn’t come up with a more scientific name. So they call these the happy chemicals. And without these happy chemicals, without them being produced in your body and in your brain, you cannot feel happy. Because an electrical impulse cannot create the feeling of happiness. It is one thing, and one thing only, the production of these two chemicals. What are they? (Serotonin?) Serotonin, that’s correct, that’s the delivery vehicle takes in dopamine. That’s one; the other’s endorphins. Endorphins and dopamine (and serotonin, very good, as the delivery vehicle.) All right, if it’s endorphins and dopamine that cause us as human being to feel happy, and if that’s the ONLY way that we can feel happy, well, gosh, we want some, right? We want some endorphins. Don’t ya’ll want some endorphins and dopamine? Let’s go get some. Well how can we do that? Well, one way we can produce endorphins in our body is naturally, by exercise; by working out with weights or by running. And if you happen to know anybody that’s a runner, then you know what I’m talking about when I say that some people get addicted to running. And they run 10 miles a day. And if it rains, and they miss a day, they feel like they’ve gotta run 20 miles the next day to make up for it, right? They’re addicted to running. What they’re actually addicted to is the “endorphin rush” Because, if you’re like me, you get out and start running and after a few feet your feet start hurting, your ankles hurt, your shins hurt, your knees hurt, your thighs hurt, your stomach hurts, your lungs hurt - your body says, “You’re killing me, you idiot. I’ve gotta do something.” And your body releases endorphins into the blood and your brain. What happens? You get that second wind. You get that feeling of exhilaration. You cross that threshold of pain, and you keep going. And it feels great. Those of you that have ever experienced that know what I’m talking about. Well, producing endorphins in that way, naturally, won’t hurt you one bit. Do that all you want. As a matter of fact, if you’re ever feeling depressed, ladies and gentlemen, if you can just drag yourself out from under those covers and get out of that bed and go take a brisk walk, get your endorphin levels up, you’ll begin to feel better. I know it’s hard, when you’re depressed, to get yourself up and do a little exercise. But I promise you if you can just make yourself do it, you’ll begin to feel better. So, (endorphins is a way of naturally) exercise is a way of naturally producing endorphins in your brain. (What was the) What’s another way we can produce endorphins? Let’s say we don’t want to work out. A lot of us don’t want to exercise, right? But we want to feel happy. So, what’s another way we can do it? Well, we can do it artificially. We can do it chemically, by drinking an alcoholic beverages. When you drink an alcoholic beverage, the alcohol in that beverage causes endorphins to go up and flood your brain,. It’s like a shotgun affect on those billions of brain cells, and it makes you feel a certain way. And those of you who’ve been drunk know what I’m talking about. It gives you that almost instant feel-good feeling, right? It makes you think like you’re invincible. In many cases instances, it makes you feel that you’re wonderful. As a matter of fact, ladies, if you’ve ever been in a bar, and a man comes up to hit on you, and he thinks that he’s the best looking, sexiest, wittiest, most charming guy in the bar, but he’s really a sloppy, obnoxious drunk, with puke drying on his shirt; the problem is, you see, his brain is flooded with endorphins, so you just kind of have to overlook us when we act that way, I guess. So, what’s the other happy chemical? Dopamine. Alright, how can we produce dopamine in our brain? Well, we can do that naturally by getting good news. If somebody rushed in right now and said, “Nicole, you just won the lottery.” I think it’s 260 million dollars. Look at her smile. It’s not even true. If it was true she’d be jumping to the ceiling. What happens is, when we get good news, a shot of dopamine goes up to our brain cells like a silver bullet, like a laser, right to those nerve cells endings, and makes us feel happy, even when it’s not true, when we get good news. So that’s one way we can produce dopamine in our brain. What’s the other way to do it? We can do it artificially, or chemically, by using illegal drugs. We can smoke a joint, we can snort some coke; we can use some meth. When you use an illegal drug, it’s like a silver bullet, like a laser, right to those nerve cell endings, and it makes you feel good. That’s why people use drugs - so they can feel good. That’s why people drink - so they can feel good. So that the endorphins and dopamine will be produced in their brain. Here’s the problem with that. If you use drugs or alcohol long enough, consistently now, long enough over a long enough period of time, your brain and your body have becomes so dependent on producing your happy chemicals in that artificial way, it can’t do it on it’s own naturally anymore, no matter what. It has forgotten how to produce endorphins and dopamine on its own. And when that happens, you will become chemically/ biologically depressed if you stop drinking or using drugs. So try that, do this experiment. I’m kidding of course. Use drugs or alcohol for a long period of time, consistently, for, say, 3 to 5 years. Ok? And then wake up one morning and look around at the devastation and the destruction you’ve caused in your life and the lives of the people who love you, and make a decision to stop. Just go cold turkey. Stop using drugs and alcohol. Your brain and your body have forgotten how to produce endorphins and dopamine naturally. It can’t do it on its own anymore. You will become chemically/ biologically depressed. When that happens, there are only a few very limited ways out - of the very terrible situation. One way out is to kill yourself. And when I worked in law enforcement, I worked a lot of drug-related suicides on people who would rather die than go back to that drug-abusing lifestyle. So suicide’s one way out of it. Another way out of that very terrible situation is to relapse and to go back to using the drugs. Because, when that happens, you’re going back to the drugs, not so that you can get high and feel really good any more. You’re just trying to feel normal now, because you feel so miserable. Because with no chemicals at all, you feel so miserable you’re just trying to feel normal. So you go back to producing endorphins and dopamine through this chemical means, right? The third way out is controversial. I’m going to go ahead and discuss it because it’s pertinent to this topic. It may offend some of you, but I make no apologies for it. Go ahead and write your letters. The third way out of it is spiritual. This is the only true cure I’ve ever seen for the disease of addiction. Now, if we took an addicted brain, if we took a PET scan of that addicted brain, and I pinned it up right here, without any medical training whatsoever, if I pinned up a PET scan of a healthy brain right beside it, every one of you, without any medical training, could see the difference in that addicted brain. Because an addicted brain is chemically, biologically, physically and physiologically changed. You can see the difference in that brain. I have know people who are in fourth stage addiction, who are drug addicts and/or alcoholics for 12 to 15 years, and they did one thing. One thing. They accepted Jesus Christ. And they were immediately delivered from that. You can pin up a PET scan of the brain. It’s not an addicted brain anymore, it’s a healthy brain. Now, that’s a miracle, and that offends some people, because they don’t want to believe in miracles. But, folks, the reason I’ve discussed it with you is because I’ve witnessed it so many times throughout my career. Now, that offends people for a lot of reasons, and I really don’t understand all the reasons. Because I can talk about a religious leader - I can talk about Muhammad, I can talk about Buddha, or I can talk about Confucius or any religious leader, and nobody gets mad. I say the name of Jesus Christ, and people get upset. And they write letters and complain. Why is that? I think it’s because that name has so much power. So, making a spiritual decision is one of the ways out of this terrible situation. The problem is that, when people are so badly addicted, it’s difficult to even get them to be able to thing along the lines where they can make a decision like that. So what’s the other way. What’s the only worldly or secularly accepted way out of that situation? Counseling. The world says that the only cure for the disease of addiction is counseling. And counseling does work. The problem is, it’s difficult to get people to go into counseling. Because, when someone’s addicted to drugs or alcohol, they’re in denial. Denial is a part of the disease of addiction. The disease has structured itself in such a way that the disease tells you “Nicole, you don’t have a problem. It’s all these other people that have a problem. They just don’t know how to party.” You know? The disease tells you that. It’s denial. And every single person who’s ever been addicted suffers from denial. Every single person I ever arrested for drugs or alcohol all told me the same thing in one way or the other. They looked me in the eye and said, “Chuck, I control drugs, drugs don’t control me.” Even though it’s painfully obvious to anyone who cared to look at them that their brains and their bodies were rotting away from that chemical intoxication. They were simply in denial. It’s part of the disease. And a drug addict or alcoholic who’s in denial is a very dangerous situation, but you know what’s much more dangerous? It’s the parent who says, “Oh, my kid’s not on drugs,” or “My kid will never use drugs.” It’s the principals or the schoolteachers who say, “Our school is drug-free.” It’s politicians who claim, “Drugs have been eliminated from my district.” Ya’ll, it’s business owners and human resource managers and supervisors who refuse to realize how serious a problem drug abuse at work can be. Drug abuse drains over 160 billion dollars from the American economy, and the majority of that comes from American business. So, When someone is addicted to drugs or alcohol, you have to have four things in place for them to get well. If any one of these four is missing they will not get well. The first thing you must be able to do is break through the denial, because denial is always present. What’s the best way to break through denial. Putting them in jail won’t do it. I told you earlier they get right back out and start using and abusing drugs again the next day. That’s not the solution. The best way I’ve seen to break through denial is when a supervisor in a drug-free workplace sits down with an employee and says, “Don, I’ve got the results of your drug test from here at work. You’re positive for cocaine. How’d that get in your system.” Now what’s Don gonna say? “Uh, somebody injected me with it while I was sleeping.” You know, they try all these crazy, outlandish excuses. The best one I’ve heard recently is this guy who tested positive for marijuana at work and, when confronted with the results of the test he said, “You don’t say?” He said, “Now the only way that that could be possible is that I went hunting this past weekend, and I shot me a rabbit. I ate that rabbit and I’ll bet you that dang rabbit had ate some marijuana.” And, of course, the supervisor laughed in his face, like ya’ll are laughing. So, they try these crazy stories, but in their heart of hearts they know that you now know that they have a drug problem. Boom. You just broke through the denial - the most difficult and the most important first step. What’s the second thing that must be in place? Now you must give them a reason to want to get well. How about this reason? Don, “You tested positive for drugs here at work. But if you’ll do what I ask you to do and go into this little counseling program, I’m going to let you keep your good job.” Folks, we can prove that eighty percent of the time, that’s enough of an incentive to get them to take that very important, most difficult, first step and go into a counseling program. The third thing that you must have in place is that you must make that counseling available to them in the workplace, counseling that otherwise they might not afford. Now, ya’ll don’t have to pay for it as employers. We’ll get to that in just a minute. But you’ve got to make sure they have access to counseling that they otherwise couldn’t afford. And the next thing that you must have in place is you have to have a hammer that hangs over their head that can fall at any minute to keep them from relapsing. What is that hammer? It’s continued drug testing once they return to work. See, drug testing’s important, primarily, to break through the denial of drug addiction. It’s important, secondarily, as a hammer that hangs over their head that can fall at any minute to keep them from relapsing. So, you’ve gotta have all four of these things in place. You’ve gotta break through the denial (that’s the results of a positive drug test), you’ve gotta give them a reason to get well (you can keep your good job), you’ve gotta make the counseling available to them (counseling they otherwise might not be able to afford), and you’ve gotta give them a reason to not relapse (continued drug testing at work). Now, other than drug-free workplace programs, somebody tell me a program that has all four of those elements. There isn’t one. You’ve gotta have all four. If one of them is missing, that person won’t get well. That’s how serious the disease of addiction is. That’s why drug-free workplace programs are so effective at attacking the demand side of America’s drug problem. By getting people well who are already suffering from the disease. By providing drug education that prevents the disease to begin with among America’s future workforce, our children.

For assistance in setting up your company’s drug free workplace program, go to: http://www.livedrugfree.org/