For those DOT members who will be a part of the Clearinghouse, below is a timeline of upcoming events happening for the Clearinghouse that you should be aware of.

The Clearinghouse final rule was made back in December of 2016. This rule created a drug and alcohol clearinghouse for the DOT. It also identified the roles and responsibilities of those who will be required to use the Clearinghouse. You can see that final rule here.

Fall 2019: Registration Begins

This upcoming fall users will be able to create an account for the Clearinghouse that will give you access once the Clearinghouse becomes operational on January 6, 2020.

January 6, 2020: Clearinghouse Implementation Date

Mandatory use of the Clearinghouse to report and query information about driver and alcohol program violations will go into effect on this date. Employers will be required to conduct both electronic queries within the Clearinghouse and manual inquires with previous employers to cover the preceding three years.

January 6, 2023: Clearinghouse Three-Year Mark

Employers must query the Clearinghouse to satisfy the employer requirement to identify prospective drivers who have committed drug and alcohol program violations.

If you have any more questions regarding the DOT Clearinghouse and how it applies to you, check out the FMCSA’s information on the Clearinghouse here.

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Professor David Nutt, a psychiatrist and director of neuropsychopharmacology in the Division of Brain Sciences at Imperial College, London, set out to measure just that. He and his team worked on using statistical data to help them measure the potential for and consequences of using certain substances. In completing this research they helped answer an interesting question: What are the five most addictive substances in the world?

1. Heroin

Heroin was listed as the most addictive drug on their scale with a score of 3 out of 3. Heroin is an opiate that causes the level of dopamine in the brain’s reward system to increase by up to 200%. It’s also a very dangerous drug considering the fact that a lethal dose of heroin is only 5 times more than the dose required to get high. Heroin was also rated as the second most harmful drug in terms of damage to users and society within an estimated market of $68 billion dollars for illegal opiates worldwide.

2. Cocaine

Cocaine was listed as number two on their list of addictive substances for its ability to prevent neurons from turning off your brain’s dopamine signal. Dopamine can rise up to more than three times the normal level when on cocaine. In addition to those addicting side effects, it is also extremely dangerous as crack cocaine was listed as the third most damaging drug with powered cocaine ranking at fifth most damaging.

3. Nicotine

Nicotine is the main addictive ingredient in tobacco and was named number three on Nutt’s list. More than two-thirds of Americans who have tried smoking reported becoming dependent during their life. How dangerous is smoking? A 2002 study estimated that tobacco will kill more than 8 million people annually by 2030.

4. Barbiturates (“downers”)

Barbiturates, also known as downers, barbs, blue bullets, nembies, are a type of drug that were initially used to treat anxiety and induce sleep. However, they have long been abused for their ability to cause euphoria at low doses. These drugs can be extremely dangerous because at higher doses they can be lethal due to their ability to suppress breathing. Serious barbiturate abuse and dependence was common when these drugs were more easily available, but this number has seen a significant decline as prescriptions today are not as easily obtained.

5. Alcohol

Although it is legal in both the U.S. and U.K., alcohol scored number five on their list of addictive substances with a 1.9 out of 3 on their scale. In lab experiments they found that alcohol increased dopamine in the brain’s reward system by 40% to 360%. The more alcohol that was consumed, the higher the dopamine levels got. While it is a legal and commonly used substance, alcohol is still dangerous especially when consumed in large quantities. A study conducted by the World Health Organization estimated that 3 million people died in 2012 due to damage caused by drinking. It’s also estimated that 22% of people who have taken a drink will develop dependence on alcohol at some point in their life.

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Alcohol misuse was the seventh-leading risk factor for premature death and disability globally in 2016; among people between the ages of 15 and 29, it was the number one risk factor with an estimated one in 10 deaths being linked to alcohol consumption.

The authors of this study conducted their research from 1990 to 2016 studying 195 different countries. It is “the most comprehensive estimate of the global burden of alcohol use to date.” With the authors concluding that there is no level of alcohol where the health benefits outweigh the adverse effects and that “alcohol control policies might be need to be revised worldwide.”

Many were shocked to hear the results of this research, especially with numerous studies over the past forty years concluding that moderate alcohol consumption is healthy and could potentially be preventative against heart disease. The Lancet didn’t dispute the heart disease prevention claim, but states that the overall negative effects of any alcohol consumption outweigh any positive effects.

Some argue that “alcohol-related” is a loose phrase that may be connected to accidents or events that are not necessarily directly caused by alcohol consumption. While others are cutting down on alcohol use to avoid the potential negative effects to their health and the shocking statistics printed in this latest study.

Whatever your stance might be on social drinking, it is always a good idea to keep an alcohol and drug free workplace. Despite safety protocols being in place, 40% of all industrial workplace fatalities are caused by employees working under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Good drug testing and education programs have been proven to provide benefits such as:

• Increased morale
• Decreased workplace accidents
• Reduced employee theft
• Increased productivity
• Reduced employee turnover
• Decreased cost of insurance (i.e. worker’s compensation)

If you’re interested in drug and alcohol training for your workplace managers/supervisors or in setting up drug and alcohol testing in your workplace feel free to reach out to us by email (mail@blueline-services.com) or phone (888-919-3278) and we’ll figure out how to best protect your company and employees!

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