While many companies implement a substance abuse policy as a reaction to existing problems, management at Kwik King, an Ocala, Fla., convenience store chain, adopted its policy with an eye to the future. Annually, the company hires an average of about 20 people for the 5 or 6 slots at each of its 49 stores. High turnover is a fact of life in the convenience store industry, so the company wanted to send a message to future applicants. "We didn't have any real drug problems in the company at the time we installed the policy," said Judy Dunn, Kwik King's Director of Operations. "But with this policy I think we have discouraged a lot of applicants whom we wouldn't want working for us."

Kwik King's policy is actually a modified version of a Marion County, Fla., program called "Drugs Have No Business Here." By tailoring the county program's blueprint to its own needs, the company managed to install the policy in its stores at virtually no cost. "The only change we made was to omit pre-employment testing," Dunn said. "Given the amount of hiring we do, the cost would have been prohibitive."

Instead, the program's only cost to Kwik King is approximately $500 per year, or an average of 20 tests at a cost of $25 each. Tests are usually conducted in the case of injuries, frequent employee absences, or a promotion within the company. On rare occasions, the company has tested entire stores where employee theft was suspected. In one case, testing paid off because an employee tested positive and was found to have been stealing money from the store cash register to support her drug habit.

When the policy was first announced five years ago, Dunn sent a letter to each of the company's employees asking for their support; employee reactions were almost unanimously positive. "We're trying to promote an image for the convenience store industry," Dunn said. "Having a policy makes a statement. It sets a morality level for what we are about."

In the last five years, Kwik King's safety record has improved greatly. Dunn acknowledges that the credit for the improvements should go to a total safety program that was implemented (of which the substance abuse policy is a component). The bottom line is that the company saved $70,000 in workers' compensation costs in its first year alone, and this bodes well for the future.