>>> Part 8 of 15...
goal of work-place testing is to enhance on-the-job safety
and productivity by reducing drug-related impairment.
...
CHAPTER I, SECTION 1
...
A study of pre-employment urinalysis results and employment
outcomes for 2,500 postal workers found ...
[see 1 above, and 8 and 9 below]
[3] (*) JOURNAL OF ADDICTIVE DISEASES, Vol 12(2) 1993 pp. 9-21
``Barbarians at the Gates'' by Stanley Gitlow, M.D.
...
...President Reagan signed Executive Order #12564
establishing the goal of a ``drug free'' work-place. It
made federal employment illegal for anyone using illicit
drugs on or off the job. By december 1989, over 5 million
Americans required urine testing ... in order to keep their
jobs. ... The acceptance of such procedures in the work-
place resulted in their application to non mandated
employees as well; this resulted in the testing of 8 million
workers in 1989. This figure was to rise to 13 million
during 1990.
In the meantime, the public had been frightened by stories
of drunken pilots, pot smoking railroad engineers, and
nonfunctional captains of oil tankers. ... the terrified
American people have leaned progressively toward demanding
that their government guarantee each of them the right to
live without responsibility for self or personal risk. In
point of fact, during the past ten years only two commercial
aviation crashes led to the discovery of illicit drug use by
the flight crews: in March of 1983 a cargo aircraft crashed
during the night at Newark and both pilots revealed previous
use of THC, and in January of 1988 Continental Express
flight #2286 crashed near Durango, CO while the non-flying
pilot-in-command had evidence of cocaine. In neither
incident did the NTSB establish a causal relationship
between illicit drug use and the accidents. Nonetheless,
within a year of the latter accident almost all of
commercial aviation in the United States was mandated to
apply tests of employees designed to rule out illicit drug
use.
... by the Spring of 1988 the government had completed
30,300 random urine tests of their regular employees.
Positive results ... were found in 0.7%. The direct costs
for the first year were $15,000,000 ...
...
Until recently, only testing for the 5 drugs [or categories]
were allowed under law. This, despite the fact that the
relationship of alcohol ... to accidents had been more
clearly established and the magnitude of this problem in the
area of public safety was far and away greater ...
... our government quite apparently felt more comfortable
writing highly restrictive legislation for ``illicit drugs''
despite the fact that the magnitude of the public health
problem was minor in comparison to that associated with
alcohol.
...
... the MRO finds him/herself in the position of having to
reveal to employers and federal authorities certain other
medical data which happened to be revealed in the course of
the urine assay, *even though having no connection whatever
to the use of ``illicit'' drugs*. ...
Sadly, it is not incumbent upon any employer to recommend
treatment for an employee with a positive test for
``illicit'' drugs ... Some MRO's embrace the whiz quiz in
the belief that it offers early detection and therapy, but
in truth the overwhelming majority of companies that become
aware of a positive test simply discharge the employee at
the present time. ...
... The commercial transport system data reveal a
statistically minuscule incidence of what appears to be drug
related accidents. ... If any threat to safety in the
work-place existed, all of our information pointed to the
need to control drinking. ...
...
... A DOT study in May of 1988 stated repeatedly ``No
statistical conclusions regarding the relationship between
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* Origin: Who's Askin'? (1:17/75)
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