>>> Part 3 of 15...
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                  THE DANGER OF FALSE POSITIVE
No laboratory process is completely free from error -- mistakes
do happen.  Even with today's legal restrictions on the accuracy
of employee drug testing, there is still a chance that non-drug
users will ``fail'' a drug test.  Failing a drug test -- even if
you pass another test later on -- can have a lot of undesirable
consequences[3].
If you were to fail drug test and claim innocence, you would be
interviewed by a medical review official, an MRO, who would try
to find out why you tested positive.  During this interview, a
lot of personal information is asked for.  Some of this
information might be passed on to your employer -- including
medical data which you may not want your employer to know![4][3]
What is worse, the regulations which control just how much of
this information goes directly to your employer are currently
under legislative `attack.'  Soon employers may receive negative
test results directly[3].
Besides the suspicion which may be caused by a false positive,
and the loss of privacy, there is another serious drawback to
drug testing: loss of work.  New, on-the-spot drug tests will
make this a huge problem[4][3][14].  These tests are nowhere near
as accurate as the standard urinalysis tests, but they are
attractive to employers who worry about drug use because they
provide immediate results[14].  Employers may want to ``play it
safe'' by administering these tests, and sending anyone who fails
them home until a more accurate drug test can be performed.
You do not have to be a drug user to dislike drug testing.  Drug
testing can hurt anyone, even if they are totally `innocent.' 
This is wrong.  Not only can workers lose money through lost
hours, but the business itself can be hurt through lost
productivity.  Even worse, some people are bound to slip through
the cracks and get fired.  The worst time to have a false positive,
though, is during the hiring process.  Many employers will simply
not hire you, if you test positive for drugs and will not even 
tell you why they didn't[9].
          SOME PERTURBING QUESTIONS ABOUT DRUG TESTING:
                    WHO ACTUALLY GETS CAUGHT? 
                WHERE DOES THE DANGER REALLY LIE?
An estimated 65% to 90% of people who get caught on drug tests
are caught for marijuana use[8][7].  This is due to two factors. 
First, the number of marijuana users is far greater than the
number of cocaine or heroin users[2].  And second, marijuana is
easier to detect than cocaine or heroin because it is the drug
which leaves metabolites in your body the longest[2][16].
There is no doubt among the medical community that marijuana use
presents less of a danger than cocaine or heroin use.  Marijuana
is not physically addictive[16][13][6] and it has never caused a
single death by overdose [16].  Also, people who hardly ever use
marijuana are being put on the same level as marijuana abusers
and users and abusers of other drugs.  A person can be denied
employment or fired for using a single marijuana cigarette or
smoking marijuana as much as a month ago -- even if they were on
vacation.  New hair testing methods threaten to extend this to
three or four months[12].
If the goal of work place drug testing is to discourage the use
of harmful drugs, wouldn't it make sense to punish drug users
according to how much, how often, and how dangerous a drug they
use instead of lumping them all together? (Supposing punishing
the drug users was a good idea in the first place.)
Another disparity in our work-place drug control strategy is
evident.  Alcohol and tobacco are both widely used, but legal,
drugs which have been linked beyond all doubt to accidents
[3][8][9][16] and health problems [3][16].  If the goal of drug
testing is to make the work-place safer, then why do we spend all
this money, time and effort detecting drug use when we could be
combatting addiction to alcohol and tobacco?
In fact, don't we run the risk of promoting the use of less
detectible drugs, or more harmful, but legal, drugs by adopting
this `zero tolerance' to casual marijuana use?  Marijuana users
who want to keep their jobs may switch to other drugs that are
more dangerous to get their `highs.'  
                DRUG TESTING AS A FAILED STRATEGY
                   AND ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES
Countless studies have shown that drug users are capable of
leading normal lives and holding normal jobs[13][16].  Drug
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