Drug Testing in the Workplace

You see it happening in the parking lot; cars that are filled with smoke. Your co-worker sitting next to you, their eyes are red, their clothes reeking of that nauseous aroma. They seem disoriented and fumbling to do their job. The stench coming from them is making you sick, so you approach the manager in hopes of finding a solution only to be laughed at and told "We can't drug test everyone, which costs money."

The high co-worker is still barely doing his job and doesn't get approached, highly upset and irritated, you move your work space to another area just so you can carry out your work day without getting sick.

Does this situation sound familiar? It is the exact situation that I have been in too. There are many companies out there that fork out the money to drug test their applicants before hiring them. This process is a safe and easy way to know that you have an employee that spends their time doing other types of recreation and not the lethal kind.

Yeah, I understand that some people out there like to have a joint once and a while, but that once and a while should be on their own time not on company time and or not when they are dedicated to working for an employer that day or the next. Personally, I am not a fan of the stuff, or any other drug. But if that is your thing, there is a time and a place for it.

Your employer is trusting in you to serve their company well and do your work to the best of your ability without your abilities being hindered. And you have to remember that you got that job for one of two reasons, either you like the line of work, and or you need money. So why mess it up with drug use?

The federal requirements for drug testing checks for five categories; cannainoids which includes marijuana and hash, Cocaine which includes crack and benzoylecognine, amphetamines which include methamphetamines and speed, as well as checking for opiates that include heroin, opium, codeine, and morphine, and also PCP. There are also five types of drug tests that can be done; urine, saliva, hair, blood, and sweat.

Urine is the cheapest of methods at around $10 per test and normally detects drug use within the past week or longer if the use is regular. Saliva is a little more expensive and detects any drug use within the past few days. Hair used to detect drug use will cost the company about $100 per test and detect drug use over longer periods of time but fail to detect use during the past week. Heavy drugs such as heroin and morphine lay on the hair tightly and tend to stay for long periods of time.

Blood tests, of course, are the most expensive and are the most accurate. However testing sweat is very uncommon and currently there is a lot of controversy over the accuracy of this type of testing.

Since urine is the most inexpensive, most companies should invest in keeping their work place safe and productive. If you have 500 employees that need to be tested... yes that is $5000, however if most or at least half of those employees pass the drug test and get hired, the company will make up their lost profit or even more with the productivity of those that are hired.

Drug tests can sometimes be tricky because some over the counter medications have been known to give false drug testing results. Some of these over the counter medications are; Advil, Motrin, Midol, Sudafed, and Vicks. A lot of times drug testing centers will ask if you have taken any over the counter medications in the last 30 days or are on any type of prescribed medication.

Statistics have shown that employees who are under the influence of drugs tend to miss work more, are 33% less productive, tend to be involved in accidents on the job, cost the company more money to the healthcare systems, and cause more work related fatalities.

By drug testing before employment, this improves the quality of the applicants, reduces accidents, as well as losses of possible theft, reduces the absenteeism so you are actually being productive instead of loosing money, as well as helps to eliminate wasted time training the employee when they really have no will to be there in the first place.

Another note for drug testing is that those people who are receiving government assistance and or unemployment should be drug tested as well. Millions of employees around the United States are working their rears off for a living and getting a hefty amount of taxes that are taken out of their pay to go to various organizations, which inevitably circle back to funding the unemployed with unemployment or such government assistance programs. Many people fib to get the assistance so they don't have to work. Many people spend the money that tax payers give them on their drug habit.

My question is, if we are working so hard for out money and some of it is getting handed to those without a job, why can't we drug test those without a job? Those who are lazy and refuse to work and feed off of government funds should not have money just handed to them, especially if it is going for illegal uses.

In conclusion, drug testing is a major downfall of our country as well as the drug problems in our work place are getting worse. Not only in the workplace, but in the schools as well, which should also have the ability to test students for drug use. Getting everyone on a productive and straight forward life is not only beneficial to the companies, but for the health of the people as well; those who use and those who don't. All are affected when someone participates in drug use. People get hurt...people die.