Random Drug Test Facts

Today, in some industries, taking a drug test is as routine as filling out a job application. In fact, workplace drug testing is up 277 percent from 1987 despite the fact that random drug testing is unfair, often inaccurate and unproven as a means of stopping drug use. Each year millions of American workers are tested even through they aren’t suspected of any drug use. Employers do have the right to expect workers not to be high or drunk on the job. Some companies require their employees to prove their innocence by taking a drug test. However routine random drug tests have become, they're still intrusive. Often, another person is there to observe. Even indirect observation can be degrading; typically, workers must remove their outer garments and urinate in a bathroom in which the water supply has been turned off. Urinalysis reveals not only the presence of illegal drugs, but also the existence of many other physical and medical conditions, including genetic predisposition to disease or pregnancy. In some cases companies have even admitted to using urine samples collected for drug tests to screen female employees for pregnancy - without their knowledge or consent. Human error in the labs or the test's failure to distinguish between legal and illegal substances, can make even a small margin of error add up to a huge potential for false positive results. In 1992, an estimated 22 million tests were administered. If five percent yielded false positive results (a conservative estimate of false positive rates) that means 1.1 million people who could have been fired, or denied jobs. 80% of large companies already spend over $200 million a year testing for drugs in the workplace, affecting 40% of the US work force. By 2005 up to 80% of all US workers will be subject to some sort of random or pre-employment drug test.