The United Nations Drug Report in 2011 pronounced India as the biggest consumer of heroin in South Asia. Recreational drugs like cocaine and cannabis are growing in popularity amongst individuals in the age group of 25-34 years. With such data, employers need to make sure that they keep the workplace away from substance abuse and intoxication. Running a drug test on job applicants plays an important role here.
What is a drug test for a job?
Running drug tests for employment helps employers ensure safe and well-informed hiring decisions.
A regular substance user might get intoxicated at work, make the workplace uncomfortable for their co-workers, show a dip in productivity, or show other adverse implications. Employment drug testing helps your organisation steer clear of such hires and build a safe work culture.
It helps employers prevent employee absenteeism, ensure more productivity, and prevent mishaps at the workplace. Further, they may hold a drug test as a key parameter to make hiring decisions for high-risk job roles.
What do drug tests detect?
Employers may conduct drug screening to detect the consumption of drugs like-
- Barbiturates
- THC (cannabis, legalised marijuana, hash)
- Hallucinogens (LSD, magic mushrooms, peyote)
- Opiates (opium, morphine, heroin, codeine)
- Amphetamines (meth, crank, speed, ecstasy)
- Inhalants (glue, paint)
- Methadone
- Benzodiazepines
- Prescription drugs (Vicodin, Oxycodone)
- Cocaine/Crack
When do employers conduct drug tests?
The periodicity of running a drug test differs as per the organisation’s requirement. Let’s look at some common cases:
Pre-employment:
To ensure safe hiring, employers need their prospective candidates to pass a drug test before joining the company. It takes place after the applicant receives the employment letter. If the applicant fails the test, employers don’t hire them.
Reasonable suspicion:
When any drug abuse signs and symptoms are observed in an employee, employers may take the liberty to run a drug test on the suspect. Suspected employees are advised not to come to work until the results have arrived.
After a workplace accident:
If employers suspect a workplace accident or unpleasant event to involve drug consumption, they may run a drug test. At such times, it is essential to have some criteria to determine if a test will be conducted.
Some examples of such events are deaths, acute injuries, or property damage. Even though a post-event drug test will determine drug or alcohol use, it cannot prove that drug or alcohol use has caused the accident.
Periodic Testing:
This test can be conducted periodically or annually. Jobs that require physical activity are a good example of where periodic testing is needed.
Random Testing:
Employers may conduct an unannounced test on randomly selected individuals. Here, computers make the selection at random so that every employee has an equal chance for the test.
Testing after returning from recovery:
If an employee has taken time off work after testing positive for drug abuse in the past, she/he has to again go through the test before re-joining work. This makes sure that the employee has finished the drug treatment and is ready to return to work. Employers may also use this type of testing to test employees who have been absent for a long time.
Employment drug screening methods
There are several ways of conducting a drug test. Let’s look at some commonly used ones below:
Saliva drug and alcohol test
Saliva is easy to collect and difficult to adulterate. Using saliva samples for drug and alcohol tests is useful in detecting real-time drug usage (as drugs do not stay in oral fluids for long).
Blood drug and alcohol tests
A blood drug test determines the amount of drug/alcohol in the blood at the time of sample collection.
This method may screen the presence of drugs like amphetamines, barbiturates, phencyclidine (PCP), cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamines, opiates, nicotine, and alcohol.
Breath alcohol test
You must have observed traffic police checking for drunk drivers at checkpoints. To check if the driver is under the influence of alcohol, they use a ‘breath alcohol test’.
This test shows the present intoxication amount. Usually, one ounce of alcohol stays in a person’s system for one hour.
Hair drug test
A hair drug test cannot determine real-time consumption but has an edge over the other testing methods used. As it lets an employer look into a 90-day window of drug use.
It can detect cocaine, opiates, marijuana, methamphetamine, and phencyclidine.
Urine drug and alcohol test
Usually used to detect the use of illegal drugs, urine tests check the presence of drugs in a person’s body. It can detect this presence even after the influence wears off.
It usually screens an individual for drugs like amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamines, opiates, nicotine, and alcohol.
At IDfy, a house for all employee background verification needs, we prefer urine samples to conduct drug tests.
What if an employee tests positive for drug abuse?
Employees who test positive for drug use can be sent for rehabilitation, asked to take some time off, or laid off. The decision is usually based on the severity of the case and lies with the employer.
Pre-Employment Drug Test Laws in India
In India, the Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances Act, of 1985, states that drug sale, possession, and consumption of any amount are criminal offences. The punishments vary according to the set rules and regulations.
Employers can form policies for a drug-free workplace policy if it is in strict compliance with the local laws and accompany it with a carefully written set of rules and guidelines, which are easy to understand and execute.
Read more about laws governing pre-emptive employee screening here.