In a fast-paced world, almost everybody will do almost everything to land a job. This includes the tedious process of fine-tuning the appropriate application documents needed, putting in the necessary financial means, and this may or may not include drug tests. Various employers have their own reasons of putting up dug tests in their job application scenarios, ranging from liability reductions to plain insurance cost-cutting. Even the Federal Government mandates every business establishments to be clean of drug-related blemishes before they could ever get their hands on a business contract, and before actual work commences.
However, there are still a few commercial establishments that can be considered "drug-test free". But as the size and number of employees increase, so is the responsibility of ensuring the integrity of their workforce...ensuring chemicals like metabolites don't hamper with employees' productivity and work ethics.
With this in mind it is also worth mentioning that the possibility of certain drug-screening procedures affecting the productivity of employees is there. And the vast majority of employers still think that the only way employment considerations can be truly put to consideration is to employ clean drug-testing procedures in their premises.
There are also restrictions on the employer's end as to when, how, and why a drug testing should be put to order. One is that employers must do drug screenings to test for drugs - the law forbids the testing of other illnesses or medical situations during drug tests. This seem to shed light to the importance of knowing how long substances included in drug testing remain in one's body which is tackled later in this book.
Drug testing may consist of the following types...
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...ed samples are then forwarded.
• If any of these submitted specimen are found to be "out of the ordinary", the lab's license might be revoked.
Questioning your test results will be a very expensive process. The MRO's duty of collecting, reviewing, and analyzing lab test results to ensure the integrity of the results is a job relying entirely on facts. If you are taking other medications that might have triggered your positive result, it is also their duty to contact the pharmacies/physicians involved to make sure the prescriptions are addressed to the right person. As all possible angles are deemed for investigation, any mismatch from the lab reports down to the amount of THC in your urine will just place an accent to your positive findings. If you smoke pot, you should therefore be well aware that THC, along with its metabolites, can stay in your body for weeks.
Since drug testing centers do not typically check for a sample’s validity, testing authorities use an improvised technique of checking the sample’s temperature. Urine is warmed by the body, and it only logically follows that a fresh sample should also be warm. Otherwise, it must have come from somewhere other than your body.
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.
...ult, and some times it does not give a result at all. It is unfair because it only targets certain workers; mainly low wage employees. It is unjust because people are automatically accused of using drugs, and that is why the drug test is given. Drug testing should not be abolished, but it should be a more controlled issue since it is something everyone in the US must go through.
Although there are numerous deaths, at least 100,000, from prescription drugs each year, there has never been a death attributed to marijuana. The late Dr. Tod Mikuriya, a former administrator of the US government’s marijuana research programs, stated that after he had treated about 10,000 patients in 15 years, he felt that there are about 200 different medical conditions that respond favorably to medical marijuana.
“Search and Seizure. Suspicionless Drug Testing. Seventh Circuit Upholds Drug Testing of Student Athletes in Public Schools. Schaill v. Tippecanoe County School Corp., 864 F.2d 1309 (7th Cir. 1988).” Harvard Law Review. 103 (Dec. 1989): 591-597.
While employment screening in the healthcare sector is decidedly standard, the law does often not require drug and alcohol testing. Substance abuse is one of the leading causes of disciplinary action against a nursing license in the U.S. Random drug screenings are used to detect the use of unapproved or illegal drugs for the purpose of upholding patient safety (National Council of State Boards of Nursing, 2006). The American Nurses Association (ANA) estimates that six to eight percent of nurses use alcohol or drugs to a degree that would impair professional judgment (National Council of State Boards of Nursing, 2011). Approximately one-third of the one percent of actively licensed nurses are disciplined each year for their substance misconduct (Kenward, 2008). Protecting patients from unsafe practices and personnel is the primary responsibility of each supervisory board of nursing. However, the fear of punishment from the board or termination keeps many nurses unwilling to come forward (Maher-Brisen 2007). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the viability of mandating random drug testing for nurses and other health professionals. The objective of this would be to address the rooted issues of substance abuse and decrease the risk of harm to patients under the healthcare provider’s care.
Is it appropriate for employers to test staff for drugs or alcohol? How reliable are these results? Why should some one invade your privacy? Do drug testing determine your skills level for a job? What do drug testing in the work force prove? The arguments against drug testing are it is excessively invasive, may damage relations between employers and employees, and could hamper the recruitment and retention of good staff. In 1986 the Regan administration recommended a drug-testing program for employers. In 1991 The Omnibus Transportation Employee testing act of 1991 were passed. It required mandatory drug testing in trucking and other industries. Over the past 25 years drug testing in the military has increase. Today, approximately 62% of all employers in the US have mandatory drug testing program. Drug testing in the work force have been a very controversial topic ever since. Drug testing should not be in the workplace since it does not measure on the job impairment, do not prevent accidents and is an invasion of privacy.
occur on the job. Both instances use urine testing and this particular test in not 99.99% guaranteed to show true results; when the drug was consumed or how much is currently in the employees system. The federal government is looking to lower cost and also prevent persons who are tested from being able to use the "cheat" (TAP, pg 1) method. Diluting the sample obtained, refusing the test and other methods are commonly used by employees to deter the true results of the test. They explained "even though employees can be tested at any time the instances of the tests are generated by the severity of the position the employee holds". (TAP, pg 2) Federal employees may be working at a site requiring hard hats and maneuvering heavy machinery or are behind a desk crunching numbers; the decision to test the individual is derived from upper management.
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.
First off it is important to understand the effects of cannabis use and its history. When smoking cannabis THC is the leading stimulant released.
When test results don’t have accuracy, additional testing may be needed to authenticate the results.
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.
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
Westgard, J. O. (2013). Perspectives on Quality Control, Risk Management, and Analytical Quality Management. Clinics in Laboratory Medicine, 33(1), 1-14.
Drug testing can be a scary process, although it can be a very easy test for those people who don’t take drugs and don’t throw fits about it