City of Buenos Aires and surroundings: drug consumption increased almost 4 times among workers
 
A report by two work medicine entities.  Appeared in Clarín.

According to a poll, 14 per cent of workers are addicts. In 1987 this figure was barely 3 per cent. The piece of research is based in the antecedents of 5.000 public and private workers of all social statuses.

14% of workers in the Federal Capital and Great Buenos Aires take drugs, especially cocaine and marijuana, in this order. This includes builders, cashiers, multinational managers, physicians, salespeople, and finance employees. Statistics also show that drug consumption increased among this group almost four times in the last 16 years.The figures come from a report by the Argentine Academy of Work and Society Medicine and the Argentine Work Medicine Society, which is a part of the Argentine Medical Association (AMA).

The causes for such a rise, according to the specialists, are the heavy stress workers experience daily, the higher level of competition within companies and the bad working conditions, to name a few. Consequences affect not only the drug consumers themselves but also the companies they work for.

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The report concludes that the 700 drug consumers repeat certain attitudes and situations such as absenteeism and work accidents, which occur five times more than among the non-consumers, 18 more late comings, 7 times more disciplinary sanctions, 35 per cent less work capacity and 10 per cent more health expenditures.

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"There is no profession or activity that escapes drug. Neither there is any distinction between public and private places. And there are no ages or areas to mark a difference. Today, the consumption is generalized".

In this regard, the figures shown by a report by the UN say this century began with 200 million drug consumers in the world (marijuana: 144 million; stimulants: 29 millions; cocaine: 14 millions; opium: 13 millions). In Argentina there are no recent numbers.

What leads workers to take drugs? "It's a mix. There's more poverty, more indigence, work conditions have worsen, so have work stability and security, salaries decreased and competition is much harder. These situations provoke stress, tachycardia, hypertension. This leads to drug consumption", explains Pinto (president of the Argentine Academy of Work and Society Medicine and of the Argentine Society of Work Medicine)

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   July 28, 2003.

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