Source: Times, The (UK)
Contact:  http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Pubdate: 11 Nov 1998
Authors: Anthony Morton-Hooper and Stephen Young

CONCERN OVER DRUG TESTING AT WORK

From Mr Anthony Morton-Hooper:

Sir, Dr Patrick Dixon enthuses about the efficacy of workplace drug testing
(Feature, "Why we must have drug tests at work", November 5). Sensibly, he
acknowledges the importance of education and the primacy of deterrence over
punishment.

The experience of drug testing in sport offers some guidance and warnings
to businesses, and also schools, where drug testing is being introduced.
The world of sport has struggled for decades to get its policies right and
that world is as much infected by the persistent errors and injustices
committed by over-zealous governing bodies who fail to accept the
limitations and fallibilities of their drug testing policies as by the
activities of the cheating player or athlete.

It is only when the consequences of those errors and injustices are
considered that sufficient attention will be paid to the need for proper
safeguards. The only system of testing deserving public confidence is one
which balances toughness of purpose with scrupulous fairness. Drug testing
procedures must protect the innocent, the whole process must have integrity
(errors in sample collection will determine the analytical result), there
can be innocent explanations for microscopic traces of banned compounds,
and there must be recourse for the victim of the "false positive".

Drug testing in the workplace and in our schools may become the norm.
However, if the errors and misjudgments seen in the sports world are
repeated by businesses and schools there will be a substantial risk of
failing to realise the underlying and legitimate objectives of the policy
and a loss of public confidence.

Yours sincerely, TONY MORTON-HOOPER, Mishcon de Reya (solicitors), 21
Southampton Row, WC1B 5HS. November 6.

From Mr Stephen Young:

Sir, Calling it a "huge success", Patrick Dixon tries his best to paint a
friendly face on mass drug testing, now an institution here in America.

He offers little consideration, however, of employees who have done nothing
to provoke such a degrading procedure. And what of the fears of employees
hesitant to reveal medical conditions to employers? Drug screenings can
detect legal drugs, as well as illegal drugs. Innocent employees can
experience false positives, and drug-using employees may know how to
generate false negatives.

Perhaps there are fewer positive drug test results now, as Dixon claims,
but it would be ridiculous to assume that the process has had any actual
impact on the American drug problem. Drug testing has been a success only
as a business, profiting from a form of alchemy by which, at last, urine
can be turned into gold with little expense, as long as an employee's
dignity and privacy are overlooked as costs.

Yours faithfully, STEPHEN YOUNG, Roselle, Illinois  November 7. 
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Checked-by: Mike Gogulski