Tuesday, April 21, 1998

Private sector's drug tests could aid public fight in war on drugs

Many larger American businesses have adopted drug screening tests to enforce a "not in my back yard" policy toward drug use by their employees and prospective employees. Perhaps we should think about expanding that approach beyond the individual back yard to cover the whole corporate neighborhood.

Although some civil libertarians objected to employee drug testing when it first began, the rationale for such screening is simple. If we were talking about randomly stopping people on the street and giving them a drug test, that would be an unwarranted and unconstitutional invasion of privacy. But businesses have an obligation to protect the safety of their employees and customers from injury due to another employee's drug-impaired capabilities.

Besides, an employee on drugs is cheating employers who have every right to expect their workers to apply their clear and complete faculties to the job at hand.

Message to youth

In fact, more widespread on-the-job drug testing could become a major weapon in the so-called war on drugs. The more universally businesses test for drugs, the more loudly the message will be driven home to today's youth, which is tomorrow's workforce:

If you want a job, don't use drugs.

Recent surveys show drug use among our young people is increasing, and other efforts to combat it, such as trying to choke off the supply or emphasize anti-drug counseling programs, seem largely ineffectual. So why not go straight to the bottom line - a lifetime's productive income? Use drugs and you won't make any money. That's the kind of message that will get some attention.

Many smaller businesses, admittedly, can't afford the in-house administrative costs and fees for attorneys and laboratory procedures that accompany employee drug testing. A little government assistance in that regard looks to be a more productive use of anti-drug funds than unwieldy schemes like sending the National Guard to our borders.

Drugs don't belong in the workplace. And shutting down drugs on the job could well be the best method for shutting down drugs, period.