Drug Screens

While some employers only require drug tests while they’re hiring, most major employers are taking steps toward having random drug screens on their current employees. The reasoning here is that by forcing employees to take these mandatory drug screens, these companies are cutting down on sick leave and making the workplace safer for everybody who is involved. In addition, companies may be entitled to lower insurance premiums because they participate in random drug screens.  However, these drug screens are costing us a lot more in terms of money and medical privacy.

First, a lot of companies are spending millions of dollars on drug screens every year. While random testing can cut down on this somewhat, the fact remains that in order to run successful drug screens, employers who want to screen for drugs are going to need to test most, if not all of their employees repeatedly. While the original purpose of drug screens may have been to save money, it is in fact resulting in millions of dollars being spent to do nothing more than prove that people who showed no signs of taking drugs were, in fact, not taking drugs.

Another problem that we are running into when it comes to companies that are using drug screens is that they are uncovering more information about their employees than they ought to. In fact, there are several pieces of private medical information that can come out as a result of drug screens – and some unscrupulous employers will even use this information to fire their employees. Pregnancy, prescription drugs and illnesses all sometimes come up in urine tests. If you’re going to be screened for drugs, and you have any of these conditions, you may want to think about using the Powdered Urine Kit instead of your own to make sure that you are not discriminated against. As far as the benefits of drug screens, well, there really aren’t any. Most of the people who are caught in these drug screens use drugs only while they’re not at work.

This means that there wasn’t any real harm through their use, and after they’re fired, there’s no benefit. Some drug screens are not done through urine tests, so there are a few things that you should find out if you’re worried about passing drug screens. First, you need to find out what type of drug screens your company is going to be using. Next, it’s important to make sure that they’ll actually be screening for things that you could possibly come up positive for, and finally, you should find out how much time you have before the drug screens if at all possible. With many of the drugs that are regularly screened for, you only need a few days to detox naturally. Drug screens are a pain and are definitely a violation of your privacy, but with the right pre-planning, you should be able to pass any of your employer’s drug screens.