Random Drug Testing in the Workplace

Workplace random drug testing procedure depends on a variety of factors, out of which the most common ones are the type and nature of the workplace, nature of the workforce, the rules and regulations laid down by the company. In many places, it is the most crucial element under consideration made for hiring of an employee or the continuation of an existing employee. In fact, in many places, workplace drug testing program is the ultimate means to do away with incompetent workforce. A urinalysis test is the most common way to detect the presence of drugs in the body and most commonly employed by companies as part of the random drug testing in the workplace.

Drug Testing: A General Perspective

Random drug testing the workplace, involves certain complications, which act as hindrance in an ideal workplace drug testing policy. There has been many efforts to rig the entire procedure of random drug testing and manipulating the findings. Especially, in the present atmosphere, when there is a lot at stake in a quality job, people tend or are lured to use unfair means in order to sustain their offer. In many tests, it is very easy to test negative, by simply avoiding drug consumption 2-3 days before the sample is taken and drinking a lot of water to adulterate the existing percentage of drug content in the sample. This is a gross violation of the workplace ethics and no way acceptable by any responsible workplace random drug testing procedure.

Another facet of random workplace drug testing is, that your drug test might be positive, even if you have never knowingly taken illicit drugs. For instance, those employed with an airline service are advised to avoid eating food containing poppy seed. Assuming, they happen to eat a poppy cake, which was well within the legal barriers and are administered a drug test, they might test positive for illegal substances like codeine or morphine. Thus, you may not be a drug user, but there should be a great deal of caution with what kind of food you consume, specially in case of services like airline sector or security services.

As the requirements of the company become more rigorous, there is also a surge in a parallel industry, the drug-masking manufacturers. There are many illegal setups springing all over the land, specially cottage industries dealing in masking agents. The availability of products which can be used to mask drug abuse, is becoming more common. Some of these can be easily spotted at the local supermarkets. The Internet too, acts as an effective medium to search through a number of these products and their providers. The result, is a sort of unhealthy and indirect competition between company policies for random drug testing in workplace and the producers and marketers of the masking agents and substances.

The popular conclusion, that can be derived on the basis of the whole gamut of random drug testing at the workplace is that, the strategy is definitely not successful as far as curbing drug using workforce is concerned. The authenticity and credibility of the process is severely undermined because of certain anti-social elements, that are actively involved in unhealthy practices. Nevertheless, the practice has certainly put a check on the random drug-abusers from spoiling the decorum and discipline of the workplace. Scraping through random drug testing in workplace, is not the attitude expected from a diligent worker. In fact, it is the duty of every responsible citizen to maintain the sanctity of a workplace and avoid drug addiction, for a happy work life and also to ensure their own healthy future.