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Motivated by a requirement to ensure health, safe practices and well being of employees, drug testing in the workplace is now increasingly common throughout the UK. Even so, you will still find quite a few misguided beliefs regarding the practice, which could cause apprehension involving those employees subject to screening.

What is the danger?

A lot of people think that the effect of alcohol and drugs in the workplace is a really insignificant matter. Most of us have watched Christmas drink-driving ads and most people realise that driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs isn't safe, therefore surely we can rely on people’s common sense? The truth is approximately 50 % of all road and work area deaths in the UK involve alcohol, drugs, or both of them. Current studies reveal that more than 70% of drug-users are in full-time employment, which means that the average drug user might be, in effect, the average member of staff. Recent government statistics put the number of 16 to 29-year-olds that used drugs in the last 12 months at only slightly below 50 %. As a result it isn't really some other person’s issue, it is affecting every work environment. Whilst the use of drugs isn't going to conclusively result in irresponsibility inside the workplace, it does greatly elevate the likelihood of mishaps, absenteeism, lowered work productivity, damage to equipment and plant, lawsuits along with an increased turn over of staff members.

What Can You Do? Isn’t Workplace Drug Screening Troublesome?

Lots of businesses mainly conduct diagnostic tests in cases where there has been an injury, unusual incident, or if they have genuine cause for concern that a worker is not fit for duty. Provided with the wide variety of possible risks in industrial workplaces, a large number of companies find it totally reasonable to carry out workplace drug testing on these types of situations.

Random drug screening in the workplace  takes drug testing a step further, whereby a number of the staff are randomly selected to provide a sample. This might appear invasive, but it is quite normal for only five percent of the workforce to get tested around on one occasion annually. What this means is that one in twenty people will be tested, or, as a staff member, the chance of being screened could be once in 20 years. Actually, this sort of minimal screening is proven to reduce positive testing result figures from as high as 46% right down to as little as two percent in just a couple of months. This just goes to show, that the typical drug user in the work environment is not addicted, but rather is simply making lifestyle choices that are able to be adjusted.

Can Employment Drug Screening be Seen as an Invasion of Civil Liberties and Human Rights?

Although some personnel might be resistant to the thought of workplace drugs screening, the majority should acknowledge that it is being conducted to ensure the health and safety of absolutely everyone around the work environment. So long as the extent of testing is in proportion to the dangers within the company, and will not specifically interfere with employees leisure time, it does not offer a risk to people’s human rights. In North America, over 98 percent of the top 1000 organisations screen their staff members with no difficulty.

Where is The Harm In Taking Drugs Outside Work?

A lot of illegal drugs have developed a less dangerous image as a result of their coverage in national magazines, newspapers and tv. Certainly, words and phrases like “recreational cocaine use” cause a lot of problems as a result of confusing folk. In the case of some people, cocaine might be more habit-forming than heroin and can't be used recreationally without having substantial danger of dependency. Addiction apart, cocaine purity has decreased from a typical 45 percent purity in 2004 to about 25 percent purity in 2010 (with purity as little as 9% documented). Unbelievably, the chopping elements employed to pad out the cocaine can include local anaesthetics, cancer-causing chemical substances, pet worming powders, right through to roach pesticide. The point is you can never trust a drug dealer.

Even drugs previously accepted as "soft" drugs bring their own risks. Currently in Britain, ninety two % of men and women needing help with psychological problems tend to be significant cannabis users. When considering this, workplace drug testing really has got the potential possibility to deal with broader community and health issues as it gets a lot more prevalent.

For more information on drug screening in the workplace or possibly home drug tests, have a look at www.drug-aware.com - a supplier of drug and alcohol screening equipment, laboratory service,and drug awareness education and advisors in drug and alcohol misuse policies appropriate for businesses. Drug Aware have taught thousands of staff across many hundreds of corporations, Her Majesty’s Prison Service, the British police force, treatment centres and clinics all over the UK.