Word: drugging
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...here's the question: Do employers think they've won the drug war or, as Karl Rove might say, have they just decided...
...Pragmatists contend that the drop-off is mostly a matter of cost. Although individual drug tests seem cheap - $25 to $50 each, according to Quest - the total expense gets difficult to justify when so few tests come up positive. According to a 1999 ACLU study, the federal government spent $11.7 million to find 153 drug users among almost 29,000 employees tested in 1990, a cost of $77,000 per positive test. Many industries, particularly construction, transportation, health care and retail, also face labor shortages, and the fierce competition for workers may compel employers to forgo drug tests that could...
...most persuasive explanation for testing's fall from favor is that, from a business perspective, it never made much sense. Companies began to test primarily because the federal government drafted them into the war on drugs. In 1986, the President's Commission on Organized Crime called on private employers "to support unequivocally" that "all use of drugs is unacceptable" and instructed the government to deny contracts to companies that did not do drug testing. President Reagan quickly ordered tests for federal job applicants and employees who carried guns or held "sensitive positions," and in 1988 Congress passed the Drug-Free...
...fledgling drug-testing industry advanced government policy - and its own business plan - with assertions that tests would make workplaces safer and more productive. Industry executives often cited research showing that drug users were three times more likely than co-workers to consume health benefits, 3.6 times more likely to have accidents, and five times more likely to file worker's compensation claims. Employers were hooked: The proportion with drug-testing programs soared from 21% in 1987 to 81% in 1996, according to the American Management Association...
...always at best a bit murky. The oft-cited research, the so-called Firestone Study, was actually a 1972 speech given to lunching Firestone Tire and Rubber executives by an advocate for helping employees overcome "medical-behavioral problems" like alcoholism. The advocate, whose name has long been forgotten, mentioned drugs only in passing and never identified the source for the statistics or anything else that might make the numbers credible. Truth be told, employment experts say there has been virtually no research indicating that drug tests improve safety or productivity...