No matter the source, the statistics tell the same sad and scary story: Chances are good you work with people who have drug or alcohol problems, and those problems are costing society billions of dollars.

"Half of the people who come here are full-time employees," Judy Shannon, director of community and corporate services for Greenbriar Treatment Center, said during a recent seminar on how to deal with substance abuse in the workplace.

"They look like all of us. They are a lot like us," added Vanessa Sebetich, community and corporate liaison for Greenbriar.

And so it is across the United States.

"I can't think of a worse public health problem," Ms. Sebetich said during the presentation. "One in 10 people has an alcohol problem ... 20 million people have a problem with illicit drugs."

"Sixty percent of adults know someone who has reported for work under the influence," according to an excerpt from a Hazeldon Workplace Survey reprinted by Gateway Rehabilitation Center, Aliquippa.

"Seventy-four percent of all current illegal drug users ... and 74 percent of heavy alcohol users work," Greenbriar quotes Drug Free Workplace information in its workplace seminar slide presentation.

As for the cost, the Institute for Research, Education and Training in Addictions says that in 2002, "drug use disorders alone contributed to a loss of productivity amounting to $128.6 billion. Alcohol dependence alone is estimated to cause 500 million lost workdays annually."

And Pittsburgh isn't immune despite its older population, local experts say. This isn't the '70s -- drugs aren't just for 20-something hippies smoking grass anymore. Vicodin, a prescription pain pill and part of a family called opioids, is now the drug of choice, both nationally and in the Steel City. The age groups abusing opioids range from teens to older adults, with most of them in their 30s or 40s.

"One thing that really hit the area unproportionately hard is opioid addiction, like Oxycontin," said Dr. Neil Capretto, medical director for Gateway Rehab. "Drug trends often start on the East or West coasts and move to Pittsburgh later, but we were one of the first [with] Oxycontin. I saw my first one [abuser] in 1999 and now I have seen probably 2,000 as one of the main drugs. ...

"Because [Pittsburgh] has an older population and a working class population, it has a higher rate of people who may need pain medication, so there were a lot of prescriptions being written, a lot legitimately. But as a result ... they got into the hands of other people..."

Dealers and users are very creative about obtaining prescription drugs for resale or use. Dr. Capretto had one patient who went on real estate tours of houses to look for and steal drugs from the homes' medicine chests. Three others had "employees" who stood outside medical clinics looking for exiting patients who seemed likely candidates to have been prescribed narcotics. "They'd say to someone, 'You look like you're in pain. I'll give you $200 for half of your prescription,' " Dr. Capretto said.

Use of heroin, a cheaper high than opioids, also is widespread locally. "It's saturated everywhere," Dr. Capretto said. "There isn't a high school in Pittsburgh that doesn't have it."

He added, "The rate of alcohol abuse is at least that of the rest of country, probably a little more, because we have more of a working-class population where drinking is encouraged. I remember working summer jobs in the steel mill with my dad and going out for a 'couple beers' after working, and for some guys that meant eight or 10 beers."

The growth of substance abuse, particularly that of opioids like Vicodin and OxyContin, locally is documented in the number of fatal overdoses over the last four decades, Dr. Capretto said.

"From 1980 to 1990, Allegheny County averaged 58 drug overdoses a year, up from in the 30s during the '70s," he said. "... As more opioids were being used [the numbers went up]. In 1998, it reached 100 for the first time: It was a total of 104 in Allegheny County. In 2002 it reached 200 for the first time... It has remained over 200 a year ever since. ...

"In 2006, we set a record with 252 drug-overdose deaths. That's more than homicide and death in auto accidents together.

"Here's what's alarming: Prescription drugs over the last five years have been involved in at least 60 percent of the deaths," Dr. Capretto added, noting those prescription drugs included not only the opioids but anti-anxiety drugs like Valium and Xanax.

"In 2006, [prescription drugs] were involved in 75 percent of those 252 drug overdoses; 40 percent were prescription drugs alone" ...

"Those overdoses don't make the front pages like murders do."

Front pages don't carry the cost of drug abuse on the workplace, either, probably because it's so difficult to estimate. "It's in the billions," Dr. Capretto said, noting that the money losses stem from things like lost productivity, sick time, lost staff and retraining replacements.

"That's why more progressive employers have EAPs, or employee assistance programs," he added. Supervisors are trained to recognize when an employee is having trouble and the employee is offered confidential information and help.

"They tell them if you want to keep your job ... you have to go to treatment," Dr. Capretto explained.

Some companies also have random drug testing; in fact, any firm with employees licensed by the state Department of Transportation -- commercial truck drivers, pilots and railroad workers, for example -- have to have drug testing in place, he said. Major League Baseball has it, he added, and not just for the players. A friend of Dr. Capretto applying to be an usher at PNC Park had to be tested for drug use.

"I am a believer in [drug testing] if done with some degree of compassion," Dr. Capretto said. "It changes the culture." The possibility of being tested helps to reduce problems in the workplace, he explained.

Ms. Sebetich and Ms. Shannon stressed to the human resources and personnel department representatives at their recent presentation that companies "have to have a drug and alcohol policy in place or your hands are tied" when a problem develops.