I received many sites and I clicked on this site that was called SAMSHA. SAMSHA, at web address http://www.health.org., stands for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. They had many basic facts on drug use on the job in America. SAMSHA did some studies and found that the prevalence of drug use on the job is between 10-23% of all American workers use drugs on the job. They also stated that 80% of U.S. firms are testing employees for illegal drug use. At about this time in my research I found out that drug use on the job is a problem. These findings also showed me that it is also a fear for employers since the rate of firms that are testing employees for drug use is so high. A couple other points that this website pointed out was that drug testing is a great way to deter drug use by employees. At this time I began to think about how far an employer can go to control an American citizens personals life. We all have our own life and should be able to do what we want if we are still doing our job well. It should be law enforcement officials who deter illegal drug use and not employers. This helped me begin thinking about my topic and spurred my interest in the topic. I began thinking about how employers test their employees.
I left my computer at the time and began looking up drug tests in periodicals again. I found information in an article out of USA Today titled "Drug Testing is Vital in the Workplace." In this article I found basic information on the issue. This article stated that there are 3 common ways to test employees. The first are random drug tests, which randomly selects a sample to test. The second is a universal test in which everyone in the organization gets tested. An example of a universal test is a drug test administered upon getting hired for a job. The third is a probable cause test, which tests only on the grounds of reasonable suspicion.