Drug Testing Trends at School and in the Workplace

Drug testing has long been in place for those working in security and safety-sensitive positions, such as jobs with the military and those of airline pilots, commercial truck drivers, and school bus drivers. But more recently drug testing has become commonplace in general work settings and even in some schools.

When you think about the fact that there are some 14.8 million drug users in the United States, it's fair to assume many of them are in the workforce. And studies show that drug users are far more likely to be involved in a workplace accident, file workers' compensation claims, and miss more work overall - all at great expense to a company.

With drug testing costing less than $50 per person, a growing number of employers are opting to do pre-employment and/or random drug screening in addition to post-accident screening, which is often required by workers' compensation carriers.

Those who are opposed to employee drug screening believe that this type of testing violates workers' privacy and breaks down the trust between employer and employee. But pre-employment drug screening can be an effective way to filter out drug users from a workplace, and random testing can be an effective deterrent to drug use among current employees.

Drug testing has become more frequent in school systems, too. Once reserved only for student athletes, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 to allow random drug tests for all middle and high school students who participate in any competitive extracurricular activity. Such testing is intended to help children say no to drugs, and to have a good excuse to do so. Recent research shows that important areas of the brain are still growing and developing during the teen years, and introducing substances such as drugs and alcohol may cause long-lasting problems with memory and reasoning and impair academic achievement.

The goal of school-based drug testing, unlike that of workplace testing, is not to save money but to help children succeed. It is not intended to be punitive, but to reduce the use of drugs and get treatment for those who are found to have dependency problems. Testing should not be the only aspect of a preventive drug program, but merely one component of a comprehensive program designed to reduce children's use of illegal drugs.

Critics of school drug testing programs, like those of workplace drug testing programs, worry that such testing is invasive, violates privacy, and breaks down trust. It is also of some concern that the most commonly used urine tests do not detect "club" drugs such as GHB and Ecstasy, or inhalants - substances that are frequently used by teens and that can have serious physical consequences.

Whether in the school or the workplace, the decision of whether to implement a drug testing program is not one that should be taken lightly, nor one that should be made by only one individual. Including many viewpoints can strengthen the success of any drug testing program and help make the school or workplace a safer and healthier place to be.