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Drug testing is primarily focused on protecting a workplace from negative effects of alcohol and other drug abuse. According to an article written by Robert Dupont in the book Drug Abuse; Opposing Viewpoints [2], drug use in the workplace is accompanied by a host of problems: an increase in health care costs for treatment of both workers and their family members, reduced productivity, increase in theft, drug sales at work, and safety threats both on and off the job. Drug testing may be appropriate for some organizations and not for others. In some organizations drug testing may be required; in others, it is optional. When drug testing is optional, the decision about whether or not to test will depend on a variety of factors such as cost, appropriateness, and feasibility. There are many reasons that drug testing should be administered such as safety, to convince users that the cost of using is too high, to reduce the cost of alcohol and other drug abuse in the workplace, give !.
recovering users a reason to stay sober, and to minimize the chance of hiring employees who may be users or abusers.
In order to determine whether an individual is using drugs and alcohol there are several types of drug testing methods that can be used such as urine test, blood test, breath-alcohol test, and saliva and hair test. Urine tests are the most popular way of testing for drugs in the workplace, but they do not measure an employee's job performance and even if the test were positive it provides no evidence of present intoxication. It just indicates that the employee may have taken drugs some time in the past. Most of the time the employees rights will not be violated if testing is administered in a predetermined policy set forth by the employer upon hiring.