By KRISTINE PORTER

Recently I wrote two articles about drugs in the workplace. One article concerned pre-employment drug testing and the other about employee drug testing.One employer told me he has seen the names of people he has known in the obituaries. They were people who had tested positive for a drug test, and he heard their deaths were due to drug overdoses. Each time, he's left with a feeling of sadness and disappointment.Why do people do drugs? The answers are numerous. For those of us who took to heart that your brain would fry on drugs just like the egg in the skillet, none of the answers justify it. One answer is understandable though.When people are given prescription opioids for pain, some get addicted. When these prescriptions run out, the cheapest and easiest to find opioid is heroin. I was told by a drug rehabilitation center that this is part of the reason for the increasing number of heroin addictions.On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a recommendation to primary care physicians to alter their current practice for prescribing opioid medications for chronic pain, excluding cancer and palliative care patients, and patients receiving end-of-life care.The CDC said in a press release that the United States is "experiencing an epidemic of prescription opioid overdose. Increased prescribing and sales of opioids - a quadrupling since 1999 - helped create and fuel this epidemic."Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, said, "More than 40 Americans die each day from prescription opioid overdoses, we must act now. Overprescribing opioids - largely for chronic pain - is a key driver of America's drug-overdose epidemic."This is a fantastic step in the right direction. These are preventable addictions with preventable disastrous outcomes.The CDC plans to work with states, communities, and physicians to prevent opioid misuse and overdose "by tracking and monitoring the epidemic and helping states scale up effective prevention and treatment programs."Treatment is the only way out of the chains of addiction. No one person can do it alone.The CDC is advocating for the use of naloxone, a rescue medication that can prevent death from overdose. Many communities nationwide have equipped first responders, such as police officers, with this drug.Since police are often the first people on the scene, they can use this medication to save someone long before the emergency medical technicians can get there.The drug issue in America is complex, and many believe we have lost the war on drugs.But at least this is one area that a positive solution and outcome are within reach.We are losing a generation of young people to drug addiction. I think many of us know of someone who has died as a result of illegal drugs.As a parent, I've talked to my kids about drugs. I told them there are three things that will happen to a person who does illegal drugs. They will either end up in jail, end up dead, or end up getting clean in rehab. Whatever happens, there's a 66 percent chance of a very bad outcome.