Drug Testing News

Stars and Stripes has reported that a staff sergeant charged with running his unit’s drug testing program was found guilty in a general court-martial of using marijuana himself and engaging in a conspiracy to hide another soldier’s drug use.

The staff sergeant was a unit prevention leader for a platoon of the 14th Movement Control Battalion and was responsible for collecting urine samples from soldiers in his unit. However, the staff sergeant admitted to providing advance warning about upcoming surprise screenings.

The DaytaTree Team

The Financial Times published an article yesterday on workplace drug testing in Europe that contained some interesting facts:

The Financial Times article also provides a case study:

Zero tolerance approach keeps ferry services afloat

NorfolkLine Ferries has had a drug and alcohol testing policy in place for more than 10 years. The UK company has 430 onshore employees and 800 people on vessels on rolling rotas. Last year more than 2m passengers travelled on its ferries across the English Channel and the Irish Sea. The company also runs freight services.

“We have a zero tolerance approach to drugs and alcohol for our vessel-based employees. The shore-based employees are subject to random drug testing but can drink to the legal driving limit,” the company says.

It randomly tests 15 per cent of staff every year. It also tests individuals if their behaviour is considered suspicious or after any accidents or other incidents. Employees are contractually required to let the company take breath, saliva or urine tests.

“Sometimes there are people who refuse to take the test. This usually results in disciplinary action and can often lead to dismissal,” the company says. On average, it says, it dismisses fewer than five people a year for failing such tests.

But there is a policy of self-referral in place which means that employees who worry that they might fail a future test can sign up to therapeutic programmes to help them with drug or alcohol issues at the company’s expense.

The DaytaTree Team

The Times Colonist has published an article on public safety and workplace drug testing.

The DaytaTree Team

The StarPhoenix has published an article called Alcohol insidious workplace issue that outlines the problem and how difficult it can be to solve:

Alcoholism or heavy drinking is a serious problem for businesses. An estimated 15 per cent of the workforce can be considered problem drinkers. These drinkers are functional in that they remain at work and perform at a satisfactory or even above-average level. Yet their drinking can damage their health, their home life and if left unchecked, their career. Worse still, many people who have trouble with alcoholism also suffer from depression or anxiety. A pattern emerges over time in which alcohol is used to self-medicate, to reduce worry and nervousness or provide a temporary escape from the blues.

Taken together the symptoms are a warning for employers to take substance abuse seriously. The law dictates it too. Substance abuse is considered a disability, making dismissal, demotion, suspension or discipline due to problem drinking or substance abuse discriminatory.

The DaytaTree Team

The New Zealand Herald has reported that up to 80 percent of job applicants are failing pre-employment drug screening tests in the meat industry.

The DaytaTree Team

The Edmonton Journal has written a good article about an appeal by the Alberta Human Rights Commission to Supreme Court of Canada to decide on a national leval on the conflict between Alberta rules supporting dismissals of substance abusers for safety’s sake and Ontario rules against such firings as discrimination. The article outlines various confusing and conflicting lower court decisions over the past few months and the lack of national rules regarding workplace drug testing.

The DaytaTree Team

The Action Against Tranquilliser Addiction Web site provides useful information for anyone that needs to deal with tranquilliser addition:

This document concerns serious problems associated with benzodiazepines and the Z drugs. These drugs are commonly prescribed for insomnia, anxiety, muscular disorders but are also a significant drug on the illicit drug market. Our organisation has serious concerns with these drugs including addiction, withdrawal problems, long term damage and crime. The reader should note that where it says benzodiazepines we also include the Z drugs which share very similar pharmacological actions, side effects, toxicities and addictive potential. The Z drugs include zopiclone, zolpidem and zaleplon.

The DaytaTree Team

The Guardian has published a useful summary of the UK’s new drug policy that provides a good outline of the problem:

There are an estimated 332,000 problem drug users in England.

Class A drug uses costs the country £15.4bn a year in crime and health costs.

Between a third and a half of theft and burglary is estimated to be drug-related.

24% of people aged 16 to 24 have used an illegal drug in the past year.

10% of people aged 16 to 59 have used an illegal drug in the past year.

The UK illegal drug market is estimated to be worth between £4bn and £6.6bn a year.

The DaytaTree Team

Reason Magazine has published an article on workplace drug testing called “The Golden Age - How Americans learned to stop worrying and love workplace drug testing” that takes a somewhat negative look at how workplace drug testing has now become a common and accepted practice in the USA.

The DaytaTree Team

All drug testing programs should include a strong educational element.

A seven minute video is available on YouTube on the devastating impact of cocaine on people’s lives.

The DaytaTree Team

The Financial Times has reported that the rate of cocaine abuse by UK workers detected during workplace drug testing increased by over one third in 2007. The positive test rate for other drugs and alcohol also increased slighlty. Overall, the positive rate during workplace drug testing was about 5 per cent in 2007, which is a 5.4 per cent increase on 2006.

Twenty-two per cent of UK employers conduct either random drug testing or pre-employment screening and another 9 per cent are planning to develop a workplace drug testing program.

The DaytaTree Team

The negative impact of employees taking drugs or alcohol while on duty is illustrated by the press coverage received by the Erie County Water Authority when an employee was charged with driving while intoxicated on the job.

The DaytaTree Team

The Irish Turf Club, which is the governing authority for racing in Ireland, has published drug testing statistics for 2007.

62 Riders were drug tested and all samples were negative. In total 337 riders have been tested since testing was introduced in 2003 and there has been only one positive test.

Alcohol breath testing of riders was introduced in June 2007 and 515 riders were tested at 10 meetings during the remainder of 2007. There was one positive test.

2,845 horses were dope tested and there were 6 positive samples.

The DaytaTree Team

Hawaiii is due to become the first state to introduce statewide random drug testing for teachers. The drug testing program, which should start in the 2008-2009 academic year, will involve testing more than 3,000 teachers a year. This represents over 25% of the 13,000 school teachers. Teachers approved the introduction of the drug testing program by 61% to 38% in a vote last year when they voted on a new employment contract that also gave them and 8% pay rise over two years. There is a June 30th deadline for the program details to be finalized. There are disputes between various government organizations regarding funding the program.

The DaytaTree Team

A feature article in the Washington Post about how painkiller abuse is widespread among coal mine workers.

The DaytaTree Team

HRZone has published an article on how to implement an alchohol and drug policy in the UK.

The question to ask yourself up front is this: will having a policy be of any practical use?

You can certainly write a drugs testing policy and into that policy you can write that employees will be required to undergo regular and/or random drugs testing.

But since you cannot actually force an employee to undergo a drugs test, as drugs testing against an employee’s wishes will either be an assault (because you will need a blood or hair sample for example) or will require you secretly testing their urine, neither of which seem terribly sensible approaches to employee relations. As such, one key issue will be what you do if the employees refuse to undergo the test.

If the policy is contractual, then failure to comply by the employee will be a breach of contract and may be sufficiently serious to lead to summary dismissal, although ideally if you do want to go down this route you should express it in your policy and repeat it in your disciplinary policy.

Failing that, a breach will lead to a warning escalating over time to dismissal. Much will depend upon the initial reason for the test and there will be a difference between testing someone because you perceive that they may be under the influence of drugs (where there will presumably be evidence of intoxication as without that you couldn’t be suspicious) and merely random testing where there is no particular suspicion, it’s just a matter of routine.

Finally, you will need to consider what you do if you carry out a drugs test and it turns out to be positive. Are you going to dismiss, warn the employee, tell the police? Will your test differentiate between legal and illegal drugs and will your reaction be different depending on which is discovered?

This is not as simple as it may seem. Imagine two scenarios: Employee A is found with prescription drugs in his system. He has driven to work and his drugs say that he should not drive whilst taking them. Is this akin to careless driving; will you tell the police; will they be interested?

Employee B is found with a very small amount of an illegal drug in his system but you are advised that the amount is so small that it would not have had a significant effect on the individual. His level of ‘intoxication’ by drugs is equivalent to a small beer. Do you discipline, tell the police, perhaps even dismiss?

These are fine judgements, and before this particular can of worms is opened you must think through how you will deal with this.

The DaytaTree Team

The Alcohol Policy Network has published links to sample policies addressing alcohol in the workplace.

The DaytaTree Team

The Daily Inter Lake has reported on the innovative approach of Glacier Center for Families, which looks more like the typical American living room than a drug-testing facility.

The DaytaTree Team

The George Washington University is conducting a survey about workplace alcohol problems. The university is targeted at employers and their employee assistance and behavioral health vendors and investigates alcohol treatment benefits and alcohol screening and brief intervention (SBI) techniques used in work-related settings (e.g., health promotion, employee assistance, occupational health) to address employee alcohol problems.

The survey is here.

The DaytaTree Team

A report on the tragic death of a teenager illustrates the true value of workplace drug testing.

A Christchurch teenager made a prophetic warning about safety in the weeks before he was crushed to death while working for a company with an ingrained drug-abuse culture and ineffective management.

James Kirkpatrick, 18, had told his parents about his concerns of working for Onyx, saying he did not feel safe and the garbage collection company had “slack management”.

Within weeks, he was dead after being run over by the truck on which he had been working.

Christchurch Coroner Richard McElrea yesterday released a report rebuking the company for having tolerated widespread drug use at work, for poor management of the Christchurch operation, and for allowing “inherently unsafe” workplace practices.

The coroner said the health and safety authorities had suspected for more than a year before Kirkpatrick’s death in April 2005 that there was a drug abuse culture at the company but had not addressed it.

The DaytaTree Team