Pubdate: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 Source: U.S. News and World Report (US) Copyright: 2001 U.S. News & World Report Contact: 1050 Thomas Jefferson Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20007-3871 Fax: (202) 955-2685 Feedback: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/usinfo/infomain.htm Website: http://www.usnews.com/ Forum: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/forum.htm Section: Business & Technology Author: Vince Beiser ADDICTIONS The Dark Side Of The Boom At first glance, Tim, 33, seems like any dot-com drone, putting in long hours and pulling down big bucks building Web sites for an Internet business. Recently, he worked three 30-hour stints in a single week. But it's not just six figures and stock options that keep Tim going. When his workload gets overwhelming, Tim cranks up on methamphetamine, sometimes for weeks at a stretch. "I go home late, have a bite, crash for a few hours, and go back," he says. "Then I take the weekends off and just sleep." The tech world's wired work habit rivals the cocaine craze that swept stock-trading circles in the 1980s. A growing number of tech workers have serious drug problemsstimulants such as meth and cocaine, mostlyand the trend may be worsening, along with the sector's economic fortunes. Help menu. "The way companies are folding right now, it's do or die," says an executive at a Silicon Valley start-up who is herself a recovering cocaine addict. "We're working our engineers around the clockand it's not coffee that's keeping them up." And even when workers lose their jobs, some keep their drug habits, says Dr. Alex Stalcup, medical director of the New Leaf Treatment Center in Concord, Calif., where dozens of digital-economy workers check in every month. "It goes from 'I need drugs to stay awake' to 'Life sucks;I want to get high.' " Drug treatment professionals report that tech workers, a type they rarely saw, now form a growing part of their clientele. One company, e-getgoing.com, is even developing an online drug treatment program targeting dot-com addicts. There aren't yet any major studies showing whether drug use is more prevalent among tech workers than other professionals. But high-tech meccas are becoming drug bazaars. Police seizures of meth have soared in the Silicon Valley area in recent years. In Durham, one corner of North Carolina's Research Triangle, police confiscations of cocaine have doubled in the past two years, and meth seizures went from zero to 6.4 pounds. The long hours, high pay, and young staff make the tech world fertile breeding ground for drug abuse. Its freewheeling atmosphere makes getting high at work easy. Few dot coms test employees for drugs. On-the-job drug use is particularly risk free for the many programmers who work from home or at odd hours. "I have clients who go in at midnight, do coke, and work until 6 a.m.," says Dr. Arnold Washton, a New York-based addiction psychologist who treats many tech professionals. As anxiety replaces arrogance in growing numbers of tech workers, those drug-fueled midnight shifts may be getting busier. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart