One in 10 workers takes drugs in the company or public and private institution in Peru.
Consumers are concentrated between 19 and 25 years old. Marijuana and cocaine are the most common.
"During work hours, we would lock ourselves in an office that had blinds, we would close them and calmly, realizing that we were in a work meeting, we would throw a couple of lines".
This is how easy it is to consume drugs within the company. The phrase is from Matías, a fictitious name of a 40-year-old agro-industrial engineer who became deputy manager of a multinational and who prefers not to identify himself.
In his office in the eastern sector of the capital, he locked himself up daily with five colleagues to consume cocaine and marijuana, which the junior brought to his own desk.
Matías's story is more common than he imagines. In Peru, one in ten workers uses illicit drugs, as evidenced by the second study of drugs in the labor population of the La Esperanza Corporation, in which 1,050 workers, from workers to managers, from six medium and large companies were interviewed, from the food, mining, manufacturing and telecommunications sectors, located in the Metropolitan regions.
Microtrafficking.
Another of the findings highlighted by the study is that the presence of micro-traffic was found in all companies. Of the total number of people who received drug offers, 5% were approached at or in the workplace. "When I was going on a trip, the junior knew that when he returned he had to leave one or two bags of cocaine in the pencil holder and in the morning when he handed me the newspaper or the correspondence he would give me a package," Matías says.
If the junior was absent, he would call any dealer, who would deliver it to him in the company parking lot or in the building's lobby. "At any time, at 9:00 in the morning, at the snack time or at 10:00 at night, when needed," says the executive who worked in a telecommunications company, located in the city of Lima..
Of the total of people who admitted having consumed drugs in the last year, 6.2% said they preferred marijuana, 2.5% cocaine and 0.5% base paste. In other words, 9.2% have used some illicit drug, a figure that is nearly 50% higher than the consumption of the total population, which reaches 5.7%.
The study carried out draws attention to the use of cocaine in the working population between the ages of 26 and 34, which is higher than that of the general Peruvian population. "So the use of this toxic stimulant can be associated with the world of work and its characteristics," states the research.
«I did it for a performance issue so that I could work more, be able to get up and be more awake, I thought it would help me to have greater mental agility. I used the crutch cocaine to assert myself, to be able to give up. In my worst time, I got to spend between $ 20 and $ 40 dollars a week, "says Matías.
Without fear.
The group of workers would be more predisposed to start consuming illegal drugs because they do not associate it with negative consequences.
When asked if using marijuana frequently was high-risk behavior, two out of three employees said no, and with respect to cocaine, one in three said they did not consider it risky. In addition, drug addicts generate a false sense of harmlessness since they are the ones who affirm more frequently that drugs do no harm.
This means that many workers are at risk of falling into drug use, because if there is micro-trafficking in the company and, furthermore, there is no awareness of the danger that they involve, there is no objective or subjective barrier to their use.
This is serious because recent research shows that marijuana reduces reflexes and the ability to react by between 30% and 40%, and that a third of serious workplace accidents involve people under the influence of toxic substances.
Matías was gradually destroying himself. «I lost my memory, my sense of location, I began to be more careless with the details of the work I had to deliver, with the attention to clients I was in charge of, I did not go further, I did what was right. The last 2 years were terrible, I got into trouble. It was as if everything was exploding in my face, the wave was coming and I couldn't stop it, "recalls the executive.
Prevention.
“In my company, in practice, there was nothing about prevention or someone to talk to. On the intranet there was information about alcohol and drugs, but there was no preventive action, that one said someone is worrying. There were no policies and that played against me, maybe I would have pressed the button, "says Matías, who finally resigned and after stealing from his wife, he left the house and was picked up by his sister and began to rehabilitate himself.
Education and job training do influence prevention. The perception of risk regarding drug use increases by 20%, which in turn reduces the company risk of developing addictions, accidents and other problems such as a bad work climate or theft.
