NCJ Number
110554
Date Published
1988
Length
397 pages
Annotation
This text describes the problem of the use of illegal drugs in the United States and details the legal issues, judicial decisions, legislation, and regulations related to employee drug testing in both the public and private sectors.
Abstract
An overview of drug use and drug testing provides data on the use of illicit drugs and alcohol abuse, explains drug testing methods, examines the problem of accuracy, summarizes the reasons for and against employee drug testing, and discusses the relative intrusiveness of blood testing and urine testing. An analysis of drug testing in the public sector focuses on the history of drug testing in the military, the development of random screening in Federal civilian employment, Federal personnel actions based on drug testing, and collective bargaining and litigation at the Federal, State, and local levels. Constitutional issues and court decisions are analyzed in detail for both public sector and private sector testing, with emphasis on the conclusion that drug testing is an intrusive search. Major themes are that employers need to focus on all forms of chemical abuse and not just the abuse of illicit drugs and that the courts' current approach of 'balancing' competing interests has given little protection to the right of privacy and far too little guidance to decisionmakers. Chapter notes, checklist for decisions regarding private-sector testing, index, and appended Federal guidelines and summaries of State laws that regulate drug-use testing.