The Three Reasons for Conducting Drug Screens
The subject of drug screens has aroused a good deal of controversy. Members of the ACLU are firmly against any drug screens in the workplace. They agree that employers need to have employees who can perform well and can produce results. Still, they contend that it is unfair to test all employees, even those not suspected of drug abuse. Those who have written the argument for the ACLU have failed to mention the use of medicolegal drug tests. The following article uses information on those medicolegal tests to poke a hole in the ACLU’s argument.
Drug screens involve the detection of drugs of abuse. The test sample in a drug screen comes from the urine of the tested individual. There are three basic reasons for conducting drug screens.
A physician might conduct a drug screen while a patient passes through a drug treatment program. Such drug screens do not need to meet the same high standards as those conducted in other segments of the testing community. They are intended to provide the physician with information that can direct the direction of the continued treatment, treatment intended to remove the patient from a dependency on drugs.
The laws have demanded that drug screens be used beyond the medical community. They are also performed for legal reasons. Such drug screens can provide a legal team with evidence that a suspect has abused the use of drugs. When used legally, the simple drug screen becomes part I of a two-part test.
Performance of a simple drug screen can sometimes lead to the appearance of false positives. For instance, a person who has taken a cold remedy before undergoing a drug test might seem to be a user of amphetamines. Someone who has been drinking an herbal tea from South America might appear, after testing, to be a user of cocaine. Even someone who has recently eaten a roll covered with poppy seeds might hear that a drug screen has come up positive for opium use.
That is why drug screens done for legal reasons must include two different parts. The second part calls for use of a more accurate test. That second test has the ability to pick-up evidence that could demonstrate a shadow of doubt surrounding an earlier, false positive result. In court the lawyer must provide results from both parts of a two-part drug test.
At times a physician and an employer will both get results from the same drug test. Such drug screens are described as medicolegal tests. They demand a greater accuracy than the drug tests done for medical reasons alone. Like the legal tests, the medicolegal tests must be considered incomplete without results from both parts of the test.
Medico legal drug testing usually takes place in the workplace. In that setting, the employer wants to identify drug users in order to prevent potential accidents. The employer also hopes to provide an employee with treatment for his or her drug addiction. In that way the employer is better able to retain the skills that have been acquired by the tested employee.
Medicolegal drug screens underline the desire of most employers to avoid too severe a penalty for drug use. If an employee has shown a certain degree of competence, then drug screening results will only motivate the employer to offer medical assistance to the drug-addicted worker. Of course drug-induced incompetence will not be tolerated.
Drug screens involve the detection of drugs of abuse. The test sample in a drug screen comes from the urine of the tested individual. There are three basic reasons for conducting drug screens.
A physician might conduct a drug screen while a patient passes through a drug treatment program. Such drug screens do not need to meet the same high standards as those conducted in other segments of the testing community. They are intended to provide the physician with information that can direct the direction of the continued treatment, treatment intended to remove the patient from a dependency on drugs.
The laws have demanded that drug screens be used beyond the medical community. They are also performed for legal reasons. Such drug screens can provide a legal team with evidence that a suspect has abused the use of drugs. When used legally, the simple drug screen becomes part I of a two-part test.
Performance of a simple drug screen can sometimes lead to the appearance of false positives. For instance, a person who has taken a cold remedy before undergoing a drug test might seem to be a user of amphetamines. Someone who has been drinking an herbal tea from South America might appear, after testing, to be a user of cocaine. Even someone who has recently eaten a roll covered with poppy seeds might hear that a drug screen has come up positive for opium use.
That is why drug screens done for legal reasons must include two different parts. The second part calls for use of a more accurate test. That second test has the ability to pick-up evidence that could demonstrate a shadow of doubt surrounding an earlier, false positive result. In court the lawyer must provide results from both parts of a two-part drug test.
At times a physician and an employer will both get results from the same drug test. Such drug screens are described as medicolegal tests. They demand a greater accuracy than the drug tests done for medical reasons alone. Like the legal tests, the medicolegal tests must be considered incomplete without results from both parts of the test.
Medico legal drug testing usually takes place in the workplace. In that setting, the employer wants to identify drug users in order to prevent potential accidents. The employer also hopes to provide an employee with treatment for his or her drug addiction. In that way the employer is better able to retain the skills that have been acquired by the tested employee.
Medicolegal drug screens underline the desire of most employers to avoid too severe a penalty for drug use. If an employee has shown a certain degree of competence, then drug screening results will only motivate the employer to offer medical assistance to the drug-addicted worker. Of course drug-induced incompetence will not be tolerated.
Categories
:
Drug Screens
0 comments :
Post a Comment