One day, 5 or 6 years ago, an employee at Southern Lincoln-Mercury in Decatur, Ga., came to owner Jim Grotz and alerted him to the fact that employees in one department had been using illegal drugs. Grotz tested the entire department and ultimately fired two employees who tested positive for marijuana and "speed." He then resolved to subsequently test all new employees; when problems persisted, he expanded the testing to cover current employees.

"I took a hard line because this is not something to be taken lightly," Grotz said. "This is a serious societal problem that has major safety-related issues for us."

As president of the Metropolitan Atlanta Auto Dealers Association, Grotz used his position to convince the association to provide drug testing as a free service to members. Prior to conducting the tests at his dealership, Grotz wrote a letter to all the employees advising those who had a drug problem to notify their supervisor so they could get proper counseling. "We also told them, `If you don't come clean now and we determine later that you have a problem, we will terminate you." Grotz added, "I have zero tolerance for this." No one came forward; true to his word, Grotz later fired two more employees who tested positive for drugs.

With the association picking up the tab for the actual testing ($15 to $30 per test), the only cost to the dealership in implementing the program was a few hours of consulting with a labor law firm. "We're talking about hundreds of dollars in implementation versus thousands of dollars in increased health premiums and accidents," Grotz said.

He still conducts random tests among his 65 employees, but tries to limit it as much as possible to avoid creating a "big brother" sort of atmosphere, he said. Grotz is unflinching in his conviction about testing. "When I go to bed at night and lay my head on that pillow, I want to be sure of the ability and the lucidness of my employees," he said. "I owe it to my co-workers and to my customers to provide a drug-free workplace."

"A businessman who thinks that there isn't a problem with substance abuse is not dealing with reality," Grotz said. "We are a microcosm of the universe -- you can bet that whatever problems are out there are probably in your company."

Grotz said that while he doesn't believe the substance abuse policy has halted price increases in health insurance premiums, he does think it has been responsible for containing costs.