Drug Testing

Chris

October 2006

Drug Testing

Drug testing in the workplace has become more common in the past few years, despite widespread testing; it hasn’t diminished all drug use. Opponents believe that drug testing is a violation of employee’s right to privacy. Employers say that it is a method to control substance abuse. Since employers don’t want to deal with substance abuse, they do drug testing to help keep it out of the workplace.

Employers say that substance abuse accounts for decreased job performance, increased safety risks, and more days of work being missed than usual. Opponents say that random drug testing is an infringement of civil rights that involves discrimination, lack of policy, and lack of probable cause.

Advocates say that drug and alcohol abuse cost the United States about 160 billion dollars a year on lost productivity and the rising costs of healthcare are due to the increase of work related injuries and accident. Marijuana is one of the most widely abused substances among all of the drugs that are being test for in an analysis. In a recent survey of high school seniors, 36.3 percent have used marijuana before the age of eighteen. And 10.3 percent have used cocaine in their lifetime.

With drug testing becoming more widespread, opponents say that more and more legal issues are being brought up because they say it is an invasion of privacy and employers test without probable cause.

Which bring up the question, what is the effectiveness of drug testing if the employee is only going to be tested once? Therefore the test loses its effectiveness and value. What drugs should employers test for? Drug tests only check for a few of the numerous drugs that are out there. The test cannot confirm the presence of alcohol, because after twenty four hours it leaves and body and is no longer detectable.

When employers that are adopting a drug policy, because of a drug related problem that is starting to affect worker productivity and need to have a policy that is well put forth and is accepted by all of people that would be affected. All procedures should be standardized, and that all tests are truly done at random to avoid lawsuits that involve discrimination, and bias that is based on lack of probable cause and rumors.

Why should employer have a comprehensive drug free workplace? New research has uncovered some startling facts that nearly seventy five percent of all illicit drug users are full and part time employed. A large part of the nation’s workforce in now partly impaired because of the substance abuse which account for more unhealthy employees, loss of productivity, smaller profits and other negative effects on the nation’s workforce and all the employers.

The employers