Drugs Information For Employers
Pressed by a commitment to safeguard well-being, safety and health of employees and contractors, workplace alcohol and drugs screening has eventually become increasingly common in Britain. Nonetheless, there still persist a number of misinterpretations relating to the practice, which can possibly cause apprehension amongst the members of staff involved in screening.
Drugs Information For Employers – So, where is the real danger?
Numerous people assume that the effect of abused drugs throughout the average workplace is a very minor matter. Everyone has been exposed to Christmas time anti-drink-driving TV advertisements and as a consequence, know that drink-driving and drug-driving is dangerous, so isn’t it possible to depend upon the general public’s judgement? Alas, approximately one-half of all workplace and roadside deaths around Britain relate to alcohol, drugs, or both together. Present-day stats reveal that in excess of two thirds of illegal drug abusers are engaged in full-time jobs, suggesting that the typical illegal drug user is, in effect, the average company employee. Current Home Office statistics estimate the number of 16 to 29-year-olds who have engaged in street drugs throughout the previous 12 months at just under fifty percent. In light of this fact, you can’t treat this as somebody else’s concern, because it involves just about every business. Whilst the usage of narcotics might not by default suggest risk-taking and irresponsibility within the workplace, this does significantly broaden the likelihood of workplace accidents and incidents, absenteeism and attendance issues, a reduction in productivity, damages to workplace equipment, being involved in a lawsuit and a more substantial turnover of employees.
Drugs Information For Employers – What can be done? Isn’t employee drug testing disruptive?
Plenty of companies only carry out an employee drug test in response to an injury or significant damage to property, an incident, or in the event they have reasonable grounds for concern that a member of the workforce could potentially be unfit to be at work. Due to the vast variety of potential threats found within heavy industrial sites, numerous businesses see it as being completely acceptable to carry out workplace drug and alcohol screening on these occasions, as a way to avoid them from happening again.
Of course, random workplace drug screening takes drug testing to the next degree, wherein a proportion of the personnel is randomly picked to volunteer a sample. You may see this as a little invasive, though it is pretty normal for just five percent of the workforce to be drug screened up to once per 12 month period. This is the same as only one in 20 individuals being screened, or maybe, as an employee, your likelihood of being actually screened would be once every 20 years. Amazingly, this style of minimal testing has indeed been confirmed to lower rates of positivity from as much as forty six percent down to a low of just 2% inside of only a few months. This just shows that the typical drug abuser found within the work environment isn’t addicted, but is just simply making choices about their lifestyle which can possibly be influenced toward a more positive outcome.
Drugs Information For Employers. Can this be regarded as a violation of an individuals’ civil Liberties?
Whilst a few members of staff can be hesitant at first regarding the thought of on-site drug screening, the majority are aware that this is primarily performed to underpin the safety of everybody in the work environment. Provided the extent of screening is proportional to the risks inside the workplace and does not deliberately interfere with staff leisure activities, it shouldn’t pose a threat to and employee’s human rights. Within the United States of America, more than 98% of the most successful 1000 companies screen their personnel without any problems.
Where is the risk while misusing illegal drugs outside of the workplace?
Countless illegal drugs have certainly established a softer image by virtue of their continued exposure in the country’s newspapers and television. In reality, phrases including “recreational cocaine use” have been known to cause a significant deal of harm in glossing over the dangers to people. For many young people, cocaine as a drug is even more habit forming than heroin and, as a result cannot be used recreationally without major threat of becoming addicted. Dependence aside, cocaine purity has decreased from a typical 45% cocaine content in 2004 to as low as a mere 25% purity as of 2010 (with purity being as low as 9 percent being reported currently). Alarmingly, the compounds used to increase the mass of the cocaine powder can range from dangerous anaesthetics, cancer-causing pharmaceuticals, dog worming agents, all the way through to to dangerous insecticides. The reality is you should never rely upon a drug dealer.
Indeed, drugs generally considered to be soft drugs nonetheless carry risks. In recent years in the UK, a shocking 92% of patients admitted for treatment for mental health issues are heavy cannabis users. With this in mind, workplace drug screening undeniably possesses the ability to take on wider social and health problems when it eventually becomes more common.
To read more on company drugs and alcohol policy and also home drug screening kits, visit www.drug-aware.com
About the author: Christopher Evans is the Technical Director of Drug-Aware Ltd, a provider of Drugs Information For Employers, drugs and alcohol test devices, lab services as well as drug and alcohol awareness training courses. He has trained literally thousands of delegates from hundreds of businesses, the HM Prison Service, the British police and hospitals and GP surgeries throughout the UK.
