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Accident inspires owner to embrace drug-free programBy JANE BOKUN © St. Petersburg Times, published October 22, 2000 FOREST HILLS -- Henry Echezabel knew he had to do something after the accident. As the owner of Echezabel & Associates, a surveying and mapping firm in business for the past eight years, Echezabel was one of the first on the scene a couple of months ago when an employee accidentally hit his own head with a machete he had been using to cut foliage to make way for construction. "Instead of hitting a tree limb, he hit himself," Echezabel said. "When my employee thought he had to get drug tested in the emergency room to get the medical attention he needed, he said, "Put a Band-Aid on it."' After Echezabel assured the injured worker no drug test was required, he agreed to go. "I told him, "You got away with this, but within 60 days you will be drug tested,' " Echezabel said. That event was the catalyst for the small business owner. So last month, 65 workers at Echezabel & Associates, headquartered on Country Club Drive in Forest Hills, became part of the Drug Free America Foundation's America 2000 drug free workplace initiative. "Typically, when you have employees that use drugs they have more absenteeism, accidents, and require more health care, along with supervisory problems," said Calvina Fay, executive director of the program. "If you can eliminate it, you've reduced the costs associated." Many insurers recognize the Drug Free America Foundation's program, and offer a discount to small businesses that adopt it, Fay said. The St. Petersburg-based program was funded by the U.S. Small Business Association in September 1999 and originally was slated to end one year later. So far, there are 28 companies in St. Petersburg and Tampa that have signed contracts to maintain drug free workplaces. "Our policies include employee training, and parent and supervisor training," Fay said. "There are literally no strings attached." The speakers, posters, pamphlets and referrals are all free to the businesses, she said. If employers choose to drug test as well, Fay said the program can negotiate good prices on the costly procedures. The US Small Business Administration gave the Drug Free America Foundation $314,539 to help small businesses establish drug free workplaces. The money is part of $4-million Congress set aside as part of the Drug Free Workplace Act of 1998. Drug Free America is one 16 non-profit groups that distribute the federal money. Formed in late 1995, it is the revised version of Straight, which was a drug treatment program. The foundation changed its mission to a drug prevention program. Echezabel heard about the program at a Rotary meeting. "I was impressed," he said. "It puts more people in tune with what we need to be looking for as business owners. We had a meeting and talked about how drugs affect the family and all the problems it created with families. It's more than what people think." At Echezabel's company there are notices on the wall that within 60 days there may be a random testing. "If we have a problem and we have found they've been using drugs we don't fire them," he said. "We give them 30 days and they must sign a paper that within 30 days they will have gotten treatment." The drugs he's testing for are mainly cocaine, marijuana or alcohol, Echezabel said. "It's a precaution most of the industries are going to. For alcohol, employees must get it out oftheir system within 24 hours. It makes a better working environment. We have crews working on I-75 in traffic." So far, he said, the program seems to be working. "We didn't think we had anyone who took drugs, but when I announced we were a drug free workplace, two workers quit. So there you have it," Echezabel said.
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