Burning Question for Economy

Burning Question for Economy
Drugs abuse affect the rich and the poor , educated and uneducated, professional and blue collar worker. Indeed there is no area of society which is not affected by drug abuse and this include the business community also . for any business , large or small , the abuse of drug in the work place can often lead to serious consequences. Increased accidents , reduce or loss of productivity , poor work performance and absenteeism.

There are approximately 5 million drug addicts in Pakistan. Drugs are easily available in every corner of the street. No place is safe, our home, our work place, our society (office, factories, transport, and restaurant).

Approximately an addict spends Rs. 150 per day on drugs. There are 5 million drug addicts in country, so 5000000 addicts spend Rs. 750 millions in just one day, in a month 22500 Millions and in a year Rs.270 billion. These are the direct expense on drugs. There is no data available about the losses which are bearing our economy due to absenteeism, wastage of time, low productivity and accidents of drug abuser in the work places.
One of the consequence of drug abuse in the work place is that economy of the Pakistan pays a big price for it . employee accident and errors , high illness rates , wastage of time , low productivity and absenteeism are just few example of the effect of illicit drug use .

A survey conducted by the united state Health and human service indicates that:
• Drug abuser functions at approximately 65% of their capacity
• Up to 40 % of industrial fatalities and 47 % of industrial injuries can be linked to drug abuse.
• Employee who abuse drugs are 3.6 times more likely to be involved in a work place accident and five times more likely to file a worker’s compensation claim
• An estimated 500 million work days are lost annually due alcohol and drug abuse in America
• Employees who abuse drugs are more likely to request early dismissal or time off, 2.5 time more likely to be late for work .
• Illicit drug user are more then twice as likely then those who do not abuse drug to changed employers 3 are more times in the past years
• Employees who abuse drugs cost their employers about twice as much in the medical claims
• Accordingly the united state national institute of drug addiction reports that almost 10% of all employees use drug .
There is a strong need to launch a grand operation to eliminate the silent disaster by government , business community and general public
For more detail you can contact me
Haider Meher
Haider_meher@hotmail.com
03332233205