Drug Testing News
Drawing the Line on
Drug Testing
by Ethan A. Nadelmann, IntellectualCapital.Com.
October 14, 1999
The case for testing employees, students and those applying for
government benefits for drug use seems obvious. Drug testing can
deter people from using illegal drugs. It can catch people who
are breaking the law. And it can help detect those who are using
drugs and make sure they are treated and/or punished. That logic
has encouraged the massive expansion of drug testing throughout
the United States -- first of employees, then of athletes, and
now of students and many other categories of Americans.
Anheuser-Busch brewery workers fight
drug test that uses hair
claim method is unproven.
Associated Press -- Anheuser-Busch brewery workers are fighting
a drug test imposed recently that is designed to detect drug use
up to three months prior.
The new test relies on a lock of hair, rather than a urine sample,
which has led Teamsters Local 102 to file a civil rights lawsuit
and one worker to shave all of his body hair. Testers used a fingernail
clipping for his test instead the union said.
American Airlines Sued For Discriminatory
Employment Practices From Airline Industry Information,
Sept 28, 2000
American Airlines is being sued by the US Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) for allegedly discriminating against job applicants
by asking illegal medical questions.
The lawsuit, filed by the EEOC on 26 September in Providence,
Rhode Island, states that American Airlines refused to hire a
qualified applicant for a ramp clerk and cabin cleaner position
because of the person`s mental disability. The disability was
apparently discovered during improper questioning by the airline`s
medical department during a drug test.
Unions To Fight For Sacked
Non-Unionised Flight-Attendant
From Airline Industry Information, Jan 12, 2000
Two flights attendants unions have taken up the case of a non-unionised
flight attendant at Delta Air Lines who was fired after the airline
alleged she provided a `substitute` urine sample during a random
drug test.
Yasuko Ishikawa has denied the allegation, saying that she was
mostly vegetarian, weighed less than 100 pounds and had drunk
a lot of water before the sample, which she maintains was legitimate.
Ishikawa also said that a test she got done privately after the
incident was also `dilute,` (showed low levels of creatinine,
the metabolite found in urine) like the one taken by Delta Air
Lines and did not show any signs of drugs.
Delta Drug Testing Debacle; Airline's
Bad Drug Testing Policies Hurt Good Employees, Says Association
of Flight Attendants.
AFA Demands Reinstatement of Unjustly Fired Flight
Attendants
From PR Newswire, April 7, 2000 -- The Association of Flight Attendants,
AFL-CIO, urged Delta Air Lines CEO Leo Mullin today to fix the
airline's drug testing program which has resulted in the firing
of flight attendants who did not test positive for drug use.
"We support the idea of a drug free workplace, but we also
believe in fairness," said Patricia Friend, president of
the Association of Flight Attendants. "The results of recent
tests call into question Delta's drug testing program. Delta should
bring back all those who were fired while it makes the changes
needed to restore the flight attendants faith in the integrity
of the testing process."
True Test For Ecstacy
by Lee Condon, printed in The Advocate, Oct 10, 2000
Ecstasy users who happen to be in the job market have new reason
to beware.
A new hair drug test being used by many companies in preemployment
screenings can detect the popular party drug. It also detects
marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and PCP in hair samples up to 90 days
after usage, according to Psychemedics Corp., which is marketing
the test.
Legal Issues Of Drug Testing:True Test For
Ecstacy
Basic concern: Is it against constitutional rights to privacy to
implement drug testing?
Legal case Ben Capua et al. vs. City of Plainsfield, 1986.
Surprise building lockdowns for drug testing continued until
all firefighters had been testing. 16 firefighters were then notified
as testing positive and summarily terminated without severance
pay, any appeal, and were charged with "commission of a criminal
act."
Highest Court To Study Hospital's Role
In Arresting Drug Users
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court, tackling a
dispute over women's privacy, said Monday it will decide whether
public hospitals can test pregnant patients for drug use and tell
police who tested positive. The court must determine whether a
South Carolina hospital's policy aimed at detecting pregnant women
who use crack cocaine violates the Constitution's protections
against unreasonable searches.
Getting High On Drug Testing
by Rita Risser
At the beginning of the 90's, there was no clear guidance on
the law of drug testing, especially in California. Today, that's
changed. The law is clear. Applying it is another matter. Two
particularly difficult questions arise when an employer implements
drug testing...
Patchy Justice: Is a new drug test too
error prone?
by Vince Beiser (Mother Jones, Sept, 2000)
When Al Gore announced this summer that he favors testing every
prisoner and parolee in the nation for drugs, executives at PharmChem
Laboratories had cause for celebration. The Silicon Valley company
produces a Band-Aid-like patch that monitors sweat for traces
of illegal substances, a device already used
in thousands of parole, probation, and child custody cases nationwide.
The testing proposed by Gore could provide PharmChem with a captive
market of millions.
Drug Testing and Labor Productivity
By Edward Shepard and Thomas Clifton
The use of pre-employment and random drug testing by companies
in the United States has grown rapidly during the past decade.
This paper provides statistical evidence about the economic effects
of drug testing programs by applying a production function model
to a test sample of 63 firms within the computer and communications
equipment industries in the US economy. The sample of firms comes
from several SIC code areas that comprise a portion of the "high
tech" industries in the economy. An economic production function
model is specified and estimated for a test industry using cross-sectional
firm-level data on the presence and type of drug testing programs,
combined with financial data on companies available through COMPUSTAT.
Unreasonable Suspicion
by Karen J. Gould
The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation
Act - better known as the welfare reform law, authorized states
to impose mandatory drug testing on welfare recipients. So far,
only one state is actively trying to do so: my home state of Michigan.
A law passed by the state legislature in 1999 requires welfare
recipients to submit to urine tests. Welfare applicants who refuse
the testing would be denied benefits, and current welfare recipients
who refuse the test would have their benefits terminated.
Urine Tester Falsifies Test Results
A urine tester has been jailed for falsifying truck drivers'
drug-test results, Department of Transportation Inspector General
Kenneth Mead reports. Sherrie L. Kaneaster, who owned and operated
a DOT-approved drug-testing facility, was sentenced to six months
in jail and three years probation in a federal court in Portland,
Ore., for providing false results on drug tests required by the
Federal Highway Administration. Kaneaster had pleaded guilty to
making false statements.
From Traffic World, August 2, 1999
Copyright 1999, Journal of Commerce, Inc.
Oral Drug Testing Information
(AMEX:LFP - news) said on Tuesday it expects to launch
in May a new device, using technology originally developed by
the Navy to detect biological weapons, for testing drugs and alcohol
in a saliva sample.
``Our test is noninvasive and automatic. It enables emergency
medical technicians, paramedics or nurses to quickly test, with
a high degree of sensitivity, for drugs and alcohol,'' Linda Masterson,
the company's chief executive officer, said at a Roth Capital
Partners Conference being held here.
Hallalujah! She Stamps My Hand!
I'm standing outside the federal prison on October 14,
2000 reading the following notice presented to me by prison officials:
Employee Wins For Firing After Refusing
Drug Test
The courts have held in the past that sending employees for drug
tests may be permitted when the employer has reasonable suspicion
that they are under the influence of drugs at work. A recent case
has held that employers must be able to prove such reasonable
suspicion existed at the time of the event.
Drug Testing in the Workplace
An American Civil Liberties Union FAQ
There was a time in the United States when your business was
also your boss's business. At the turn of the century, company
snooping was pervasive and privacy almost nonexistent. Your boss
had the right to know who you lived with, what you drank, whether
you went to church, or to what political groups you belonged.
No Piss Tests for Politicians
Court Rules - Teachers and Welfare Recipients Aren't So Lucky
NEW ORLEANS - - It's unconstitutional for Louisiana to require
random drug tests from elected officials, a federal appeals court
ruled in late December.
The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling
striking down the 1997 law, calling it a "well-crafted opinion."
May 2000
Drug Testing: How Far Will It Go?
One of the more intrusive aspects of marijuana prohibition
in the last decade has been the phenomenon of drug-testing anything
with a pulse.
Lately, though, the scope of drug-testing efforts has become even
more outrageous. State governments in Michigan, New Jersey, Oklahoma
and Louisiana have ascended from petty thugs to maniacal super
villains in their attempts at indirect mind control.
By Scott Colvin. TAKEN FROM HIGH TIMES - May, 2000 Issue.
Delta Airlines Employees "substituting urine samples
In the last year more than 15 airline employees at Delta Airlines
were terminated for allegedly "substituting" their urine
samples. One flight attendant in Portland, Oregon has made her
fight public and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal,
USA Today, the Atlanta Constitution, and many talk and radio shows.
Her name is Yasuko Ishikawa, a vegetarian, 95 lb, Japanese woman.
She is not a drug user, yet she was terminated after a random
drug test came back stating that she had failed to comply with
drug testing procedures and that her sample was substituted. They
determined that her sample was "substituted" because
during LABONE, inc's validity testing, her specimen was considered
"not consistent with normal human urine."
Paul McCartney MBE becomes Sir Paul McCartney MBE
Paul McCartney MBE becomes Sir Paul McCartney MBE following
an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace. New album 'Flaming
Pie', with initial hit singles 'The World Tonight' and 'Young
Boy' (both of which also feature in the hit comedy movie 'Father's
Day'), is a massive worldwide hit.
Paul McCartney & His Band on The Run
Timothy White interviewed Paul McCartney, formerly of the
Beatles, for a book and developed it into a radio program called
"McCartney: The First 20 Years." He asked the songwriter
to explain his song "Band on the Run," on the album
of the same name.
by Jack Herer
Drug Test Results In Suicide
In Atlantic City, New Jersey police officer, home on disability
since May and in constant pain from a back injury, was selected
at random for a drug test under a new "zero tolerance"
departmental policy.
03/21/2000
Your Urine, Please
.... Today, it's the corporate class that seems transfixed by
the predictive powers of piss...
"The Progressive" March, 2000 Issue
Mother Loses Newborn Son Over Drug Test
"Mistake"
A California woman, Noel Lujan, who was given a sedative during
labor lost custody of her newborn son and other children for three
months when her baby, Daniel, failed a drug test.
March/April 2000
Hair testing's color blind
The popularity of so-called hair testing to detect drug use is
skyrocketing nationwide ... But with the increased popularity
comes new controversy over ... its possible bias against people
with dark hair.
By Leslie Kean & Dennis Bernstein - 12/06/1999
Drugs of abuse
The aims of the drug screen are to detect the presence of frequently
abused drugs in the urine of human subjects. .... It is not expected
that the results of such drug tests will be used as evidence against
the patient in court.
By Ed Uthman - 11/16/1999
Detection times
Detection times of drugs in urine. Information provided by a local
(USA) drug screening laboratory
10/17/1999
Hemp-urinalysis 'myth' probed
A hefty Kentucky dinner of hemp-fed beef washed down with
hemp-brewed beer will in no wise endanger the diner's employment
prospects ...
10/06/1999
Questions to ask before you get tested
Even if you end up peeing for them like a good boy or girl,
this is a way you can make them think about what they're doing,
without appearing to be filthy lowlife drug-using scum.
09/07/1999
Medication and substances causing false positives
...a study of 161 prescription and over the counter medications
showed that 65 of them produced false positive results in the
most widely administered urine test.
07/15/1999
Effectiveness of laboratory drug testing
Urine tests are unreliable. The public is told that they
are scientific. But in operation they can't stand up to scrutiny.
06/26/1999
Types of screens being used to test for drugs
EMIT This is the most widely used test by employers because of
its low cost. .... The Syva company [manifacturer] itself recommends
a more refined GC/MS test to confirm positive results.
05/24/1999
Big brother and hair follicle drug testing
When... warden for Pennsylvania's newly built Pike County prison
began hiring correctional officers..., he insisted that they all
take hair-follicle tests for drug use.
By Stephen Witt - 05/07/1999
Hair follicle drug testing
Chaparral Steel Co. was dissatisfied with its employee drug testing
program. Urinalysis revealed only if drugs had been used within
days of the test -- and there was always a concern about cheating.
04/15/1999
Drug testing and hemp products
Drug testing poses a major potential problem for the hemp
food industry. In 1996 an employee who had eaten a Seedy Sweetie
snack [made using pressed hempseed] failed a drug test for marijuana.
04/05/1999
On the time of the war on drugs
Legend has it that in the five-thousand year history of marijuana,
only one death has ever been attributed to the plant: Two smugglers
were flying low over Floridian farmland...
By Richard Cusick - 02/06/1999
How to piss and pass drug testing
Washing your system - How much water and for how long?
01/12/1999
Drug testing - is it worth it?
Testing for drugs in the work-place has become a very hot
issue on USENET lately. Several groups have lengthy threads discussing
the morality and/or civil liberties...
By Brian S. Julin - 12/11/1998
Privacy in America: workplace drug testing
Today, in some industries, taking a drug test is as routine as
filling out a job application .... despite the fact that random
drug testing is unfair, often inaccurate...
12/09/1998
Drug testing in the workplace
Because illicit drug use is incorrectly assumed to reflect
rebellious attitudes that make an employee hard to discipline,
through urine tests "many managers feel they can infer answers
to questions about workers’ personalities and beliefs that
cannot be asked openly in interviews."
11/05/1998
Civic duty & civil commitment of drug testing
Traditionally, criminal proceedings are directed against past
behavior. A failed drug patient, however, can be prosecuted because
authorities are dissatisfied with prospects for the person’s
future behavior.
10/22/1998
Urine testing history
If you’d take its advocates seriously, you’d believe
that drug tests were intended solely for diagnostic, health-related
reasons - - and not for persecuting substance users or intimidating
workers.
10/06/1998
Follow the money of drug testing
Drug tests do not detect impairment or performance, just the minute
traces of drug-related metabolites in one’s body. The American
Civil Liberties Union decries this practice as a violation of
the right to privacy, presumption of innocence, and freedom from
unreasonable searches and self-incrimination.
09/30/1998
Criminal proceedings and drug testing
In the 1700's the state’s dominance over an individual in
criminal proceedings was regarded as so overpowering that the
Fifth Amendment guaranteed that citizens would not have to incriminate
themselves through compelled testimony. In contrast, drug warriors
argue...
By Richard Lawrence Miller - 09/05/1998
Suppression and repression in drug testing
Throughout history, Americans have held the legal tradition that
one could not give up one’s Constitutional rights - - and
if someone was stripped of these protections, then he or she was
being victimized.
By Jack Herer - 08/02/1998
Urinalysis pissing it all away
The dream of every crude economist is to be able to account for
labor (humans) as methodically as machines, raw materials, overhead,
etc. .... In the never-ending struggle to hammer human-round-pegs
into corporate- square-holes, meet the ... piss police.
By K. K. Campbell - 07/14/1998
Transportation industries and drug testing
Amtrak’s Colonial, with 616 passengers aboard, ...
piled into a string of Conrail freight engines... .... Federal
investigators said they were focusing on two possible reasons
why the trains ended up on the same track...
By Dan Baum - 06/10/1998
Peeing For The Court
Robert K. Sanford was president of Adapt, Inc., a company
that provides court-ordered urinalyses for people convicted on
drug charges, and his business practices demonstrate just how
adaptable he was. For as little as $500, clients could have their
test results "adapted" to suit their particular needs.
In most cases, clients chose to have evidence of all drug use
eliminated.
Why My School District May NOT Drug Test My Child
1. Drug testing students violates the Fourteenth Amendment
to the US Constitution, which guarantees "due process of
law".
2. Drug-testing students reverses the legal principle
that we are to be considered innocent until proven guilty. Drug-testing
tells kids they are guilty until they prove their innocence by
peeing into a plastic cup.
3. Drug-testing students violates the Fourth Amendment
which guarantees that "the right of the people to be secure
in their persons , houses, papers and effects against unreasonable
searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants
shall issue, but upon probable cause." A search for incriminating
evidence is "unreasonable" when there is no probable
cause. I defy anyone to tell me there is probable cause for drug-testing
my son or for sending a drug-sniffing dog to inspect his locker.
Drug Test Inaccuracies: Lucy In The Sky With A Bladder Infection
You've heard me speak out against drug testing. The most basic
reason - even if we get past the privacy issues and issues about
whether it has any effect on discouraging drug use - is that many
of them are just plain inaccurate. Yet, people have lost their jobs
due to false positives that turn up in a drug screen. And incidentally,
they might never find out why.
The latest example comes from the Forensic Drug Abuse Advisor,
and it concerns how one common test can give a false positive
for the hallucinogen LSD. In fact, over an 18-month period when
1,256 urine samples were tested for drugs from the Wyoming Reproductive
Health Study Program, 39 were found to be positive for LSD. Upon
reevaluation, it was found that 38 of these were false positives.
While reanalyzing the samples, Microgenics Corp. discovered that
women with bladder infections could end up with false positive
results. The manufacturer realized this after E. coli bacteria
grew out of two of the disputed urine samples.
DEA Regulations On Hemp
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) published regulations
regarding industrial hemp products in the Federal Register on October
9, 2001 which were effective immediately. Without any compelling
reason or the required public notice and comment period, the DEA
issued an interpretive rule banning hemp seed and oil food products
that contain any amount of trace residual THC. DEA also issued an
interim rule exempting hemp bodycare and fiber products from DEA
control.
After extensive meetings and discussions with most of the major
hemp food companies, it has become clear that according to the
official Health Canada testing protocol, none of these hemp food
companies have any detectable THC in their products. These companies
feel they comply with the DEA's regulations as written and wish
to reassure distributors, retailers and customers that their nutritious
hemp foods remain perfectly legal for resale and consumption.
However, since the DEA has not specified a detection protocol
and a corresponding de minimus limit of detection, the Hemp Industries
Association (HIA) and supporting plaintiffs are filing for a "Stay
Pending Review" in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. If granted,
the stay would have the effect of invalidating the interpretive
rule and force the DEA into formal rule-making process and allow
an opportunity for public notice and comment before any rule would
take effect.
Can Some Hemp Products Trigger a Positive Drug Test?
Ingesting legal hemp seed oil may cause an individual to test
positive for THC metabolites on a standard urine drug screen, according
to three separate reports published in The Journal of Analytical
Toxicology.
Results of a study conducted by ARUP Laboratories in Salt lake
City last August indicate that consumption of cold-pressed hemp
seed oil consistent with the manufacturer's recommendation is
"sufficient to cause a positive finding for cannabinoid metabolites
in a workplace urine drug testing procedure designed to detect
marijuana use." The study noted that test subjects reported
no pharmacological effects after consuming hemp seed oil.
Federal Drug Testing Programs In Jeopardy
The drug testing industry has been able to successfully downplay
its accuracy problems in the past, but their complete inability
to differentiate the ingestion of products that contain hemp seasoning,
hemp-seeds, or hemp-seed oil from marijuana use is the biggest threat
ever posed to the industry. The widespread availability of hemp
containing products that cause a false positive, including everything
from hemp-seed oil nutritional supplements to hemp-seed candy, cookies,
cheese, bread, cooking oil, and general seasoning, puts the government
drug testing programs in an utterly indefensible situation, according
to Theodore Shults, MS, JD, Editor of the scientific substance abuse
testing publication directed at physicians who administer drug tests,
MRO Alert (published by the American Association of Medical Review
Officers in Chapel Hill, NC). He states,"How can the government
defend its mandatory drug testing programs while allowing the importation
and distribution of hemp products that can cause a positive urinalysis?
"
Junk Science Drove America To Drug Testing
In the 1950s, employers spooked by the Red Menace instituted
mandatory loyalty oaths, forcing employees to forswear any ties
to communism. In the 1990s, the drug scourge had replaced communism
as the great looming societal threat, and the pee-in-a-cup employee
drug screen became de rigueur.
But the march of time has a way of exposing baseless hysteria.
Just as the loyalty oath has been shelved as an overblown reaction
to the Cold War, so soon will the drug test become an abandoned
relic of the war on drugs.
While drug testing exploded during the past decade, with the
rate of major U.S. companies engaging in it rising from 21 percent
in 1987 to 81 percent in 1996, there are compelling reasons why
drug testing in corporate America has plateaued and may be starting
to decline. Primary among them is that the need for massive drug
screening was based on junk science to begin with, a fact that
is becoming self-evident to cost-conscious human resources departments.
Drug Testing Takes A Hit
New Studies Question Value of Screening For Illegal Substances
Drug testing on the job, once a controversial practice at a few
companies, has become so pervasive that it now seems as common
as filling out a W-4 form or punching a time clock.
Want that high-profile new job at a Fortune 200 company? Here's
your cup, there's the bathroom. Give us a urine sample, then we'll
talk stock options, pal.
Want to stay employed in that construction job? Better watch
what you ingest over the weekend because you may be randomly selected
to give a sample before firing up the bulldozer Monday morning.
In 1986, only 21.5 percent of companies tested employees, according
to a survey by the American Management Association. By 1996, 81
percent did.
Chicago Cops Face Inaccurate, Discriminatory Drug Test
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois today sent
out information to the Chicago Police Department, police unions,
the City Council and the media about a new drug-test being used
by the Chicago Police Department that has been deemed unreliable
by the Food & Drug Administration and two other national scientific
organizations.
The test is being touted as more accurate, easier to use and
able to detect drug use in the past three-to-five months - rather
than the few days or weeks that a urine test can. However, the
company that makes it refuses to divulge failure rates and the
technology is considered so unproven that no objective study has
ever determined how well it actually works.
Manufactured by Psychemedics Corp. of Cambridge, Mass., it uses
hair instead of urine to determine whether or not an individual
used illegal drugs and it has been labeled unreliable by the National
Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the Society of Forensic Toxicologists
(SOFT) and the FDA. All three have stated that the test should
not used as a basis for employment decisions and the FDA has even
gone so far as to suggest that marketing the test may be illegal.
Municipal Drug Testing On the Way Out in
Washington State
In the wake of a Washington state appeals court ruling that
overturned Seattle's pre-employment drug testing of most city employees,
major cities across the state are ending or severely narrowing their
municipal drug testing policies.
The ruling was the latest in a three-year-old lawsuit filed by
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that challenged the
city of Seattle's 1996 decision to implement broad, pre-employment
drug testing of city workers. A King County (Seattle) Superior
Court judge had upheld the policy in early 1999, after the city
agreed to dramatically restrict the categories of workers who
would face mandatory pre-employment testing.
Report Questions Value of Employer Drug
Programs
WASHINGTON -- Only limited scientific evidence exists showing
that employer programs to combat alcohol and drug abuse are effective,
a panel of research and medical experts said in a report released
Monday that questioned the billions of dollars being spent annually
on such efforts.
"Workplace-oriented interventions cannot solve society's
problems with alcohol and other drugs," said the report by
a committee from the National Research Council and the Institute
of Medicine. The findings, however, were immediately challenged
by advocates of corporate involvement in efforts to fight drug
and alcohol problems.
The report noted that nearly $1.2 billion is being spent annually
on workplace drug-testing programs alone. The committee cited
a lack of thorough research into the relationship between testing
programs and worker productivity. Studies that have been done
often suffer from significant flaws, the report said.
The report raised special concerns about pre-employment drug
testing, noting that job applicants have none of the safeguards
that employees enjoy in dealing with the serious consequences
of the test results.
School Drug Testing Headed for Supreme
Court Again
The US Supreme Court agreed this week to hear a case that will
allow it to refine its rules on what constitutes acceptable drug
testing of high school students. In an Oregon case in 1995, the
Supreme Court held that student athletes could be tested because
drug use was found to be prevalent at the school in question. But
since then, school districts around the country have attempted to
expand student drug testing to include students involved in other
extracurricular activities, students who drive cars to school, and,
in some cases, random, suspicionless tests of all students.
By agreeing to hear the Oklahoma case, the Supreme Court has
signaled that it is ready to revisit its 1995 ruling on drug testing.
The court will rule on what circumstances justify the intrusion
on individual students' rights posed by drug screening.
Drug Testing in House of Representatives
Could Stir Lawsuits
WASHINGTON (June 1, 1997) -- Lawmakers who want
their staff members and other Capitol Hill workers randomly tested
for drugs could face a flurry of lawsuits because of prior court
decisions affecting drug testing in the executive branch, the
Hill reports. ''If there were a random drug testing program that
included me, I would consider a lawsuit," Robert Raben, minority
counsel to two House Judiciary subcommittees, told the newspaper.
In interviews, several House aides who work on policy matters
privately echoed him, though most declined to speak on the record.
