Drug Testing Here to Stay
![handle is hein.journals/gmaslr12 and id is 553 raw text is: 1990]
DRUG TESTING HERE TO STAY?
Kevin B. Zeese*
In less than a decade, testing bodily fluids for evidence of past drug use
has become part of the American way of life. Once it would have been
considered improper for one person to watch another urinate, or for your
employer or your government to require you to urinate on demand. But
in less than a decade, it has become the American way for employees to
provide urine on demand for government bureaucrats or low level job super-
visors. The courts have allowed wide open testing, and the few protections
employees have against abusive employers provide little protection against
compulsory drug testing.
How did we get to this point? Are these new policies justified? How
should drug testing be controlled? What is the future direction of this Great
Experiment in individual liberty? These are the questions this article will
try to answer.
I. DRUG TESTING'S FOOTHOLD INTO OUR SOCIETY
Prior to the 1980's, the testing of bodily fluids in the employer/employee
context for evidence of drug use was a rarity. I There had been some testing-
in the military prior to 1980, but it was not used for disciplinary purposes.
There was also testing of individuals in drug treatment programs, particu-
larly those receiving methadone maintenance. However, it would have been
shocking in the 1970's if an employer asked your mother to provide a
monitored urine sample if she wanted to keep her job. It will not be shocking
in the 1990's if your daughter is asked to do so.
The first urine testing programs were imposed on groups of people
with diminished expectations of constitutional protection for their privacy
rights - military personnel and prison inmates. The most important group
to set the stage for widespread drug testing was the armed services. In
January 1982, the Department of Defense authorized the use of urine tests
for the purpose of court-martial, non-judicial punishment, administrative
separations, and for referral to drug treatment.
*Mr. Zeese is Vice-President and General Counsel to the Drug Policy Foundation and the author of
Drug Testing Legal Manual published by the Clark Boardman Company.
'The proliferation of drug testing programs began in earnest in the early 1980's. For example, in 1982
fewer than 10% of Fortune 500 companies had implemented any employee drug-testing programs.
By mid-1985, more than 25% had such programs - a 36% per annual growth rate. See Chapman,
The Ruckus over Medical Testing, Fortune, Aug. 19, 1985, at 57.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/gmaslr12&div=33&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Drug Testing Here to Stay
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