OHS Health & Safety Services, Inc.-  Article

"WHAT EVERY EMPLOYER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT DRUG-ABUSE IN THE WORKPLACE!"
(A primer for the uninformed or misinformed!)
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 OHS, Inc.  All rights reserved.

"What every EMPLOYER should know about workplace drug-abuse..."

"Drug-Use Is Life Abuse"   -   Drug-Use Is Self-Abuse   -   Drugs Destroy Dreams!

This site you are now visiting, OHSinc.com...is
THE #1 MOST-VISITED WEBSITE ON THE ENTIRE INTERNET
for drug testing and drug-abuse prevention information!
CLICK HERE to see our Ranking.com Official Validation Seal
CLICK HERE to view our Top-20 most-popular web pages

As an employer, here are three facts about illicit drugs you need to know:

     (1) Just 'one' country - a country with only 'five' percent (5%) of the entire world's population - buys
           and consumes fully sixty percent (60%) of the entire world's supply of illicit drugs.

     (2) That 'one' country is the United States.

     (3) In the U.S., 77% of all illicit drug users are EMPLOYED!  (How many are employed by YOUR company?)

2) But, is it really a problem for small business owners as well as for Corporate America?  Yes!  More than seven out of ten (77%) of Americans 18+ who engage in illicit drug use are employed.  That's 9.4 MILLION employees doing drugs!  (How many work for YOUR company?)

As a result, the vast majority of businesses - small and large -  suffer from substantial decreased productivity and increased accidents (accidents both on and off the job-  the latter, of course, affecting attendance, and work performance while ON the job). Drug abuse also dramatically increases medical claims and workers' compensation payouts.  These more frequent claims, in turn, directly cause increases in the premiums paid by the employer for medical and workers' comp coverage.  (In fact, in the case of "medical" premiums, even employees end up paying higher contributions out of their paycheck every month!)  

Additionally, employee drug abuse definitely leads to the abusers' increased absenteeism and taking more than the average number of "sick days"-  time off often paid for by their employer.  While abusers are "buzzed" on the job, they are responsible for more product defects, missed deadlines, incomplete projects, or inaccurate work.  To support their drug habit,  abusers are responsible for higher than normal instances of employee theft-  not just from their company, but from their fellow employees, too.  They also can be counted on for more employee equipment loss, employee equipment damage, and other problems-   including drug-dealing (again, to support their own drug habit)! 

Roger Smith, the former chairman of General Motors, said drug abuse costs GM $1 billion a year.

3) What are employers doing about the drug problem?  Hundreds of thousands of employers - small and large - are now adopting and implementing one or more of the following: company-wide anti-drug abuse policies; comprehensive drug-abuse education and drug awareness programs; drug testing programs; and employee assistance (EAP) and rehabilitation programs.  More than fifty-five (>55) million drug tests were performed in the U.S. last year.

4) Is drug testing accurate?  Yes, when done properly.  The typical procedure is a two-step process in which a urine sample (specimen) is divided in half, and the first half is tested using a relatively simple, inexpensive, yet highly accurate "screen" (usually an “immunoassay”).  If the result of that initial screen is "negative" the lab will report the test as "negative" and no additional testing will be performed on that specimen.  On the other hand, if the result of the first test is “positive”, then a second test is conducted on the second half of the original sample using a different testing process that serves to "confirm" whether or not the first analysis was accurate.  

This second (“confirmatory”) test is performed using a more sophisticated and more expensive technique such as gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) or thin-layer chromatography (TLC).  Only if both halves of a specimen show up “positive” by these two separate testing methods (and using portions of the same urine) is it then reported as a “positive” by the lab.  The first test (by immunoassay) is 97-99% accurate, while the second test (by GC/MS or TLC) is virtually 100.00% accurate from a scientific standpoint.  Because of this Industry-standard, two-step, "fail-safe" process, the lab's report of the specimen as "positive" (AFTER a second, confirmatory test) will - virtually 100% of the time - be upheld in a Court of Law if the person who was tested should choose to try and legally "challenge" that result.

5) But can’t you “beat” a drug test?  Yes, you "can", but the odds against it are very long and getting longer all the time.  The opportunity for adulteration or substitution generally is limited by the integrity of the collection and testing process, and at any rate is detectable in most cases at the laboratory.  The increasing popularity of “on-site” specimen collection, too, has greatly contributed to the reduction of specimen adulteration or substitution by donors attempting to cheat the system. (Click here to read a separate article, "Cheating on Drug Tests:  Does it Work?")

6) What about “false positives”?  Most of the popular stories about "things" that falsely trigger a “positive” drug-test result are based on misconceptions.  These "things" normally either:
  
Don’t show up at all (e.g., “second-hand” marijuana smoke does NOT trigger a positive)
Are not detected at a sufficient level to produce a false positive (e.g., a normal amount of ingested poppy seeds will NOT trigger a positive for "opiates")
Are easily distinguishable as "false" in the laboratory

Some activities, such as a non-pot-smoker being sealed in a phone booth with four marijuana smokers who smoke pot non-stop for eight hours, "might" trigger a false positive, but for most people this scenario does not even come close to being a valid concern.  What does occasionally happen to cause a positive, though, is properly used prescription medicines or some other legitimate justification for testing “positive” on a drug test.  This is where the Medical Review Officer (MRO) becomes invaluable in the process of “confirming” lab positives.

The MRO speaks directly with the employee involved.  The MRO gives the employee a chance to prove (e.g., by presenting a prescription) that the drugs found in their system were legitimately prescribed.  In such cases where proof is presented, then, the employee (although found "positive" by the lab test) will - instead - be officially (and correctly) reported to their employer by the MRO as "negative".

7)   Is drug testing legal?  There are some restrictions on drug testing in a few states.  But, generally, employers have a right to establish a written drug test company policy that requires that employees be drug free and to implement drug testing as part of their program.  In any case, federal (DOT) regulations take precedence over any local and state restrictions in the case of DOT-regulated companies. For an outline of drug-testing laws in all 50 U.S. States plus all U.S. Territories, click here.

8)   How common is drug testing?  In 1983, only 3% of the Fortune 200 companies were testing one or more classes of job applicants or employees.  By 1991, that number had climbed to 97%.

(This article is continued in Part 2- CLICK HERE) 

Click here to continue with PART 2 (the end) of this article. 

Drug-Abuse Awareness Training for Managers

Drug-Abuse TREATMENT and HELP Facilities LOCATER- for all 50 States

Top of Page     OHS Site Directory    OHS™ Home Page    Search OHS™    OHS™ Privacy Policy