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echo: norml
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from: LP
date: 1997-02-08 23:18:00
subject: [ 8/15] Drug Testing

 >>> 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
 >>> Continued to next message...
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* Origin: Who's Askin'? (1:17/75)

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