Employees on the road to recovery deserve a second chance.

That's the mantra of Mark Elliot, a Toronto radio talk show host who is also a recovering addict.

Elliot is open about his past addictions and his downfall in the radio realm, but he has also climbed back up the ladder and now dedicates his time to helping others who have taken the wrong detour.

He will be the first to admit that drugs, alcohol and the workplace don't mix. But he's also a staunch defender of recovering addicts who want to return to the workforce.

Mark Elliot, Toronto radio talk show host

"I think most employers seem to get it today, they seem to understand that employees who go into treatment come back as better employees for the most part," says Elliot. "Employers like it because they get back an employee they don't have to retrain. They (recovering addicts) don't take as many sick days. They are dependable, reliable and sober."

The number of addicts, or even recovering addicts, in the Canadian workplace is an unknown factor. The Ottawa-based Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) says it knows of no such figures.

However, some answers may be found in the 2004 Canadian Addiction Survey, an initiative sponsored by the CCSA with Health Canada and the Canadian Executive Council on Addictions.

This showed nearly 80 per cent of Canadians aged 15 years and older drink, most in moderation and without harm. But 17 per cent of the past-year drinkers are considered high-risk drinkers, according to the World Health Organization's alcohol use disorders identification test.

When it comes to cannabis and other drug use, 14 per cent of Canadians reported using cannabis in the past year, the 2004 survey says. However, almost 46 per cent of these people had not used cannabis, or had used it only once or twice in the three months preceding the survey.

"If addiction affects about 10 per cent of our population, which seems to be a pretty standard number, then 10 per cent of the people in any place of employment are addicted. And I actually think that number may be low," says Elliot.

Nicholas Barry has been in addiction work since 1985, initially as a social worker and now counselling for the private sector in Saint John, N.B. Through his Addiction Consulting Services operation, he is called in by employers to see if they have an employee who is an addict.

"I don't think there's more people addicted today," says Barry. "But because of what people are doing (drugs like cocaine), they go down the toilet quicker. The trick is to get them before they go down."

Barry says it's hard to categorize workplace addicts into one group.

"There's employees that go back and stay sober, but there are also employees who don't and cause more grief," says Barry. "The ones that are trying hard and doing what they're supposed to do make good employees. They're honest, they show up and they do great work. They try to make up for all the time they had stolen before by being bad employees."

Accountability, or checks and balances to keep recovering addicts in line, also helps, notes Barry.

Elliot, whose radio career included stops in Windsor, Ottawa and Toronto, now hosts People Helping People, which deals with addictions and recovery and is carried on Newstalk 1010 CFRB in Toronto and aired over the Internet.

He also performs interventions helping people as co-founder of Recovery Lifeline, a service geared to stop people's addictions.

Elliot started drinking when he was about 11 years old and recognized he had a problem with alcohol when he was 16. He switched to drugs, because he thought that was different from booze. He soon saw two marriages fail, lost radio jobs because of his addiction and had to deal with the fallout from his children.

"There is a stigma attached to addiction, that it is your fault that you made yourself an addict. That is poppycock," says Elliot. "No one chooses to become an addict."

Paul (not his real name), a recovering addict who has successfully completed a recovery program, agrees there is a stigma attached to addicts. Today, how he deals with employers is dependent on the situation.

"One of the big issues is who to tell and what to tell them," says Paul, who works behind the scenes in the Canadian television industry.

"Because I'm a freelancer, I deal with a lot of different companies and you're never quite sure who knows about the rehab or the addiction. You're wondering whether you tell them, is it a need-to-know basis or have they heard rumours?" "If I felt that it was really necessary for them to know, I would tell them.

If anyone asked me I would certainly be honest but I wasn't going to advertise the fact that I had been in rehab."

Paul fell from grace when he went missing and was a no-show for a production company contract he had signed.

"I just simply couldn't fulfil it," says Paul. "I knew I couldn't do the job. It wasn't the first time I was unable to function (because of drugs or alcohol) at my top capacity, but it was the first time I did go completely missing in action."

He says his addiction arose out of a medical condition that required pain medication. Over a period of years as the condition worsened, he turned to self-medicating with drugs and alcohol, to a point where the addiction took over.

"You have to be a little more patient, which is difficult," says Paul, who continues to look for new freelance assignments.

He does not have as much work as he once did and is unsure of whether it has to do with his past addiction or whether it's just a downturn in his industry.

"I think you have to accept that there may be bridges that you burned that cannot be repaired," he says.

"If that's the case, you have to move on, it was your fault. Maybe I made some unwise choices and decisions but I don't feel like a bad person, I just made some bad choices."

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