Drug Testing

            
            
             The issue of drug testing in the workplace, and school has become more of a controversy in the last few years as drug use has become a much more important issue. In the competitive times of the 21 st century employers want to have clean productive workers. School administrators of the 21 st century want to have students free of all illegal drugs. Teachers would rather concentrate on students wanting to learn then those who are on drugs and distracting other students. Drug use may be down since the 70's but is still on a rise from the early 90's.
             The current reports on illegal drug use have shown that 9.9 percent of youths age 12-17 reported current use of illicit drugs in 1998. This estimate represents a statistically significant decrease from the estimate of 11.4 percent in 1997. The rate was highest in 1979 16.3 percent, declined to 5.3 percent in 1992, then increased to 10.9 percent in 1995. The estimate of cocaine users 12 and older in the us in 1998 was 1.8 million people down from its peak in 1985 of 3 percent of the total population in the united states. .
             Current statistics show that a large number of drug users work. Currently 70 percent of drug/substance abusers 18 and over are employed. This is alarming to any employer because of the high liability an abuser could be. Drug users have an average of 4 times higher medical costs and 4 times more likely to be in a workplace accident and 5 times more likely to file for workers compensation. Statistics show that 25 percent of drug users are stealing from there employers. In America 10 percent of adults are alcoholics and regularly abuse alcohol while 10 million American adults regularly use marijuana. It has been estimated that all of these losses in productivity add up to over 80 billion dollars annually.
             Due to the rise in drug use and alcohol abuse more school administrators and workplace employers are looking to drug testing for help.