Drug and Alcohol Training for Employees – [Complete Video Kit]

If you want the MANAGER version of this training, click here.

Do your employees know what to do when they suspect a coworker is impaired on the job — or do they look the other way because no one ever told them otherwise?

That gap is where workplace accidents happen. More than 40% of workplace accidents involve alcohol impairment, and that figure doesn’t account for the full range of substances employees may bring onto the job site — opioids, stimulants, marijuana, prescription drugs, inhalants. Each one affects judgment, reaction time, and physical coordination in different ways. And the liability exposure doesn’t stop when someone walks off your property; residual impairment from substance use can affect an employee’s performance hours or days after their last use.

This training program gives employees — and the supervisors watching over them — a practical foundation for recognizing, reporting, and responding to substance use in the workplace. It covers your company’s obligations, employees’ rights, and the personal and organizational consequences of letting substance use go unaddressed.

WHAT EMPLOYEES WILL LEARN:

• Identify how different substance categories — depressants, stimulants, opioids, and psychedelics — affect the brain and body, and what impairment looks like on the job
• Understand how marijuana’s expanding legal status does not eliminate its workplace safety risks, including its effects on coordination, concentration, and reaction time
• Recognize the dangers of inhalants such as paint fumes, aerosol cans, gasoline, and glue — and why respiratory protection is required when working with these materials
• Understand how tolerance, psychological dependence, and physical dependence develop, and why someone with a substance use disorder often cannot recognize the problem themselves
• Identify the risk factors that make substance use disorders more likely, including genetic predisposition, chronic pain, stress, depression, and easy access to substances
• Follow company drug and alcohol policies, including behavioral expectations at company-sponsored events, on-call assignments, and off-site representation
• Know when and how to report suspected impairment to a supervisor, and why staying quiet creates safety and liability risk for the entire workplace
• Understand the difference between urinalysis and oral fluid testing, and what employee rights exist under OSHA regarding post-incident drug testing
• Identify signs of an opioid overdose and understand how naloxone can reverse it
• Support a coworker in recovery by understanding the rehabilitation process and available resources, including Employee Assistance Programs, cognitive behavioral therapy, and Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD)

Course Topics:

How Substances Affect the Brain and Body The training opens by explaining the pharmacological categories of substances employees may encounter — depressants, stimulants, opioids, and psychedelics — and how each one impairs the central nervous system in different ways. Employees learn that cocaine can produce reckless overconfidence, that alcohol and sedatives slow reaction time and decision-making, and that opioids cause persistent drowsiness and cognitive fog. Critically, the program addresses residual impairment: the fact that what an employee does off the clock can still make them dangerous the next morning.

Marijuana in the Workplace With recreational marijuana now legal in many states, employers face increasing uncertainty about how to handle cannabis use among their workforce. This section doesn’t take a political position — it addresses the safety reality. Today’s marijuana is more potent than previous generations, one in ten users will develop habitual use, and its effects on coordination, short-term memory, concentration, and reaction time are comparable to alcohol. Employees leave understanding that legal use does not mean safe use on the job.

Alcohol and Inhalants Alcohol remains the most commonly misused substance in American workplaces, and the program addresses it directly — including the fact that impairment begins with the first drink, making “just one” genuinely dangerous before operating a vehicle or heavy machinery. The training also covers a frequently overlooked hazard: inhalants. Paint fumes, aerosol cans, glue, gasoline, and similar products are present in many industrial and construction environments. Employees are reminded that huffing these substances — or simply failing to use proper respiratory protection — can cause permanent lung damage and neurological harm.

Opioids and Stimulants Given that more than 75% of drug overdose deaths involve an opioid, this section carries significant weight. Employees learn to recognize the behavioral signs of opioid use and stimulant use — and to understand that these substances affect job performance in opposite but equally dangerous ways. The program also covers naloxone, the FDA-approved medication that can reverse an opioid overdose, and prepares employees to respond if a coworker overdoses on the job.

Prescription and Over-the-Counter Medications Employees often don’t consider legally available medications as workplace hazards. This section corrects that assumption. It covers prescription stimulants like Adderall, opioid-based medications, cough syrups containing DXM, and allergy medications that can cause drowsiness and impaired vision — and explains why legal availability does not mean workplace-safe use.

How Substance Use Disorders Develop Understanding the progression from casual use to dependency helps employees recognize warning signs in themselves and others. The program walks through the development of tolerance, psychological dependence, and physical dependence, and explains why denial is so common among people in the grip of a substance use disorder. This section also covers common triggers: stress, chronic pain, personal loss, and genetic predisposition — without sensationalizing any of them.

Company Drug and Alcohol Policy Employees are walked through what a formal workplace drug and alcohol policy covers, what it requires of them, and how it protects everyone on the job. This includes behavioral expectations that extend beyond normal work hours to on-call situations, company-sponsored events, and off-site assignments.

Reporting, Testing, and Consequences This section prepares employees to act when they suspect impairment in a coworker — and explains what happens next. The program covers reasonable suspicion testing, the difference between urinalysis and oral fluid testing, and OSHA’s important restriction on using post-incident drug testing as retaliation against employees who report safety concerns. Employees also learn that a positive test result typically leads to a rehabilitation requirement, not immediate termination — which helps reduce reluctance to come forward.

Recovery and Workplace Support The training closes by addressing what happens after a substance use disorder is identified. Employees learn about Employee Assistance Programs, support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, cognitive behavioral therapy, and MOUD — the FDA-recognized combination of medication and counseling used to treat opioid use disorder. The goal is to help coworkers support recovery, not stigmatize it.

WHY THIS TRAINING MATTERS:

Substance use disorders cost U.S. employers an estimated hundreds of billions of dollars annually in lost productivity, absenteeism, healthcare costs, and workplace accidents. For your organization specifically, the exposure comes from multiple directions: workers’ compensation claims, OSHA recordables tied to impairment, and potential liability if a known impairment issue went unaddressed. Beyond compliance, the human cost of a preventable overdose or equipment accident is something no training budget can offset after the fact.

WHO NEEDS THIS TRAINING:

Any workplace where employees operate equipment, handle hazardous materials, or work in safety-sensitive roles should have documented substance use training on file. This program is particularly relevant for workers in:

• Manufacturing and industrial production
• Transportation and logistics
• Chemical processing and oil and gas
• Healthcare and emergency response
• Any workforce subject to DOT random testing requirements
• Any general employee or office worker
• And many more….

Employee Drug and Alcohol Abuse Training Delivery Options:

This training course is available on an English or Spanish-speaking DVD or on USB Stick. The runtime for the course is 19 minutes. We also offer an online version of this training, either as a standalone course or as part of a larger safety training library with 220+ video-based courses.

This Complete Drug and Alcohol Employee Training Program Includes These Items:

Full-Length Preview of the Drug and Alcohol Abuse Training Video: