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Ethics of drug testing
Drug test at the workplace debate
Drug test at the workplace debate
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There are some questions you must ask yourself when deciding if drug or AIDs testing is morally right or wrong in the workplace. For example, what is the purpose of the test? Does it violate worker rights? Is getting drugs out of the workplace or gaining knowledge if an employee is infected with AID’s more important than employees right to privacy? These questions that were asked are tricky questions and I will be explaining if drug and AIDs testing is morally right or wrong. In either case the organization would value the information gained from the drug or AID’s testing. Any employer would like getting drugs out of the workplace or have the knowledge if their employee was infected by AIDs. I will be using Kant's categorical imperative theory …show more content…
Throughout the United States, the use of illegal drugs has been increasing. There can be serious consequences to the use of illegal drugs which includes physical, psychological impairment, or death. Businesses have been enduring direct and indirect cost from drug use by means of accidents, liability payments, health insurance, absenteeism, and theft to purchase drugs. Hence, the reason why employers conduct drug test is to either get the employees help, the ones that wants help, or to terminate the employees that are recreationally taking illegal drugs to reduce direct and indirect cost. Employers are also looking out for the safety of the employee that is taking the illegal drugs, as well as the employees around them. Employees can argue that the employer is violating their right to privacy, but does the employer’s reasoning for drug testing outweigh the employees right to privacy? The employer has the right to provide their employees a healthy and safe workplace. Another reason why the employer conducts drug testing is the fact that the testing is in relation to illegal drugs. Furthermore, drug testing is universalized because taking illegal drugs is against the law. The other employee right to privacy that could potentially be violated is when conducting a urine analysis, some urine analysis are observed by another individual. With the new technology that we have now, employers can choose
Prescription and pharmaceutical drug abuse is beginning to expand as a social issue within the United States because of the variety of drugs, their growing availability, and the social acceptance and peer pressure to uses them. Many in the workforce are suffering and failing at getting better due to the desperation driving their addiction.
The chapter, Selling in Minnesota, had some disturbing information about the low wage life. As I read, I learned that every place the author went to apply, such as a Wal-Mart and a Home Depot type place called Menards, required the applicant to pass a drug test. The author went out and had to buy detox for $30, but can be up to $60. Also, I learn that 81% of employers do drug test their future employees. I don’t like this statistic, in part because I tried getting a job at Marshall Field’s restaurant and they required me to pass a drug test. Luckily, another employer called me before my scheduled drug screening (which I had planned on passing by being really sneaky and using the urine of a friend of mine), so I took that job offer and everything worked out well. The reason I don’t agree with the drug testing required to access most entry-level jobs, is because the only drugs they actually test for is Marijuana. Cocaine and heroine leave the body within three days, and other drugs aren’t even tested for. So that leaves the most commonly used illicit drug, and one that has the least affect on the user, to be tested for.
If we don't have an academic degree our privacy gets raped, but if we are able to get a degree America doesn't set up boundaries for us. Although drug testing is an excellent tool to maintain a healthy and safe workplace, it is unfair and unjust to the low wage working class because it targets them. For instance; doctors, surgeons, and even teachers are not required to be drug tested as often as low wage workers.
The nursing profession is guided by the principal of nonmaleficence, or “Do no harm”. Nurses are responsible for maintaining and optimizing a patient’s quality of life. When nurses fail to care for themselves, they also put their patients at risk. The patient has a reasonable expectation to receive safe and competent care. The influence of drugs and alcohol greatly deteriorate the judgment and skills of any good nurse. Increased patient workload, long hours, personal stress, and sleep deprivation put many nurses in a position to self-medicate. It is my position that high-risk specialty employees undergo drug testing in order to be held accountable and help keep their patients and themselves safe from harm.
(Allen et al., 2000) The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a clinical situation that requires the ethical principle Justice to be implemented. AIDS can be transmitted by sexual activity, intravenous (IV) drug use, and passed from mother to child. Due to the judgments and fears from the general population and some healthcare professionals, patients who have this disease may find themselves suffering from discrimination in many ways of their lives. This discrimination comes from the stigma placed by the factors in which AIDS is mainly spread. These factors are poverty, homelessness, illiteracy, prostitution, human-trafficking, which create the labels like the “drug user” or “homosexual”.
Today, approximately 62% of all employers in the US have a mandatory drug testing program. Drug testing in the workforce has been a very controversial topic ever since. Drug testing should not be in the workplace since it does not measure on the job impairment, does not prevent accidents and is an invasion of privacy. There is no clear evidence that drug testing at work has a significant deterrent effect. Drug testing is not a measure of current intoxication and will reveal information about drug use that can have no impact on safety, productivity or performance.
Some may say that drug testing students is unconstitutional because it is an “invasion of privacy”. This, however, is not true. . . “In 1995, the United States Supreme Court ruled that drug testing for high school athletes was constitutional, and some districts expanded their policies to include middle schools.” I believe allowing schools to drug test athletes was a very positive thing. For many reason, but mainly because athletes who are on drugs have a higher risk of being injured. For example a kid who is on drugs and plays a sporting event has a greater risk of their heart stopping on the field or court. “Drug tests analyze bodily samples such as urine, blood, or hair to detect the presence of legal and illegal drugs.” The most common one is urine testing. I believe urine testing is the best way for high school students, because it does not take as long as some other tests and it is not as costly as other tests. This is especially important because obviously a school does not want to spend money on anything they do not have to. Our school does randomly drug test students every once in a while but only a few of the athletes are chosen to take the test so that really is not helping ...
It is annually estimated that the economic cost alone is $215 billion dollars that are being contributed to drug trafficking in the United States. According to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy it is projected that nearly $61 billion dollars are being used towards criminal justice such as criminal investigation, prosecution and incarceration, $11 billion dollars are for the healthcare costs as in drug treatment and drug-related medical consequences, $120 billion dollars are lost in productivity, due to the labor participation costs in drug abuse treatment, incarceration and premature death. As stated in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy it is assessed that full-time workers who were on current use of drugs were more likely to miss workdays due to illnesses and injuries. As mentioned i...
One of the significant issues that frequently evident by the organizations is the privacy policy related to workers. According to Wright (2013), the utilization of workplace drug testing policy by the employers might affect the workers' behavior outside the workplace.
One of my recent classes was on “Ethics and Social Policy in Human Services”. The second half of this course was focused on ethical decision-making in human services, using case studies to identify the ethical principles and implications revealed in each. In one specific case study presented for discussion, Ann is a licensed social worker at a non-profit human service agency whose primary duties include counselling individuals and small groups. Ann has a client, Jasmine, who attends therapeutic group sessions twice weekly with Ann because her two year old daughter had been placed in foster care due to maltreatment and “failure to thrive”. These sessions are court ordered by the local child protective service agency in order to regain custody of children. Jasmine confided to her case worker (not Ann) that she is positive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV positive), and someone informed Mary, the executive director of the agency. Mary becomes angry and asks Ann to speak privately with Jasmine to persuade her to tell the other clients in her therapy group that she is HIV positive. Jasmine is also a Type II diabetic, and uses a glucometer in the bathroom at the agency during breaks. Mary feels Jasmine is putting the staff and clients at risk by pricking her finger to test her glucose level. Mary, who is not a trained counselor or social worker, also thinks it would be therapeutic for Jasmine and the other clients if Jasmine shared her HIV status (Herlihy & Corey, 2006).
Employers may want to consider combating the stigma which haunts its addicted workers with a resourceful drug rehabilitation education system to both its addicted and non-addicted employees including the scientific facts surrounding addiction and dependence. This education may develop a positive perception of management, trust and introduce an efficient employee assistance program for all those in need to utilize.
Implications of implementing this approach may be “to reduce the dangers of drug use for the community and the individual, and to shift the focus of illegal drugs as primarily a criminal justice of medical issue to a social and/or public health iss...
The ethics of drug testing has become an increased concern for many companies in the recent years. More companies are beginning to use it and more people are starting more to have problems with it. The tests are now more than ever seen as a way to stop the problems of drug abuse in the workplace. This brings up a very large question. Is drug testing an ethical way to decide employee drug use? It is also very hard to decide if the test is an invasion of employee privacy. “The ethical status of workplace drug testing can be expressed as a question of competing interests, between the employer’s right to use testing to reduce drug related harms and maximize profits, over against the employee’s right to privacy, particularly with regard to drug use which occurs outside the workplace.” (Cranford 2) The rights of the employee have to be considered. The Supreme Court case, Griswold vs. Connecticut outlines the idea that every person is entitled to a privacy zone. However this definition covers privacy and protection from government. To work productively especially when the work may be physical it is nearly impossible to keep one’s privacy. The relationship between employer and employee is based on a contract. The employee provides work for the employer and in return he is paid. If the employee cannot provide services because of problems such as drug abuse, then he is violating the contract. Employers have the right to know many things about their employees.
When employees get hired, they get a drug test due to the fact that the drug testing can prove if the person they are hiring is a good person for their business. For an example “Approximately eighty-one percent of companies in the United States administer drug testing to their employees.” Drug testing also proves that people who passes it are clean and responsible people who the company can trust on doing their job well done and showing overall percentage of the US using drug testing (Chodorow). People who cheat on a drug test and gets a job will later ruin their job of getting into accidents during working and or start a fight with the boss or coworkers unknowingly just because they were high on drugs. That is why companies strive to do drug tests every time they hire an employee now due to the fact that they don’t want to be reliable for an employee who isn’t responsible and trustworthy of their time at their company. Which it will affect the company financially once employees gets hurt on their job. An employee who is not a drug abuser can really benefit a company by not causing trouble for themselves getting hurt in the company and also the business not being reliable for anything that is caused by the employee; who was not responsible. Another example is that reports confirm that 80% of those injured in “serious drug related accidents are innocent coworkers.” And after it began requiring accidents drug
Mandatory drug tests have proven to help teenagers reduce the use of drugs and alcohol in their daily lives. If young people get used to it when they are young, it’s proven that they would have a difficult time trying to loss their addiction to the substance. Helps the person without any criminal chargers but with all the help needed. They even have different types of drug tests to show the time period of when the person might have taken a drug recently.