drug screening 30 by Publication Critique
Published Date: 12/10/08
Recently I found myself searching for a new job and was quite surprised at how much information potential employers want from applicants these days. Not only do they need your name, any name you have ever gone by, all the places you have lived in the last 10 years, your entire employment history, education history, and social security number, now they also want you to urinate in a cup. To a certain extent I understand the need for all of this personal information, but having an actual biological sample from applicants seems to go a little bit beyond necessity.
I applied for a job at a large retailer it in my town which will remain anonymous. Let's just say that they are huge and probably have a store in your town. I understand that large corporations need to protect themselves but I feel that it is a bit of an intrusion to ask someone to urinate in a cup. Although drug screening is a common practice for employers, I have to wonder if it is really necessary and if it really protects the employer from drug users. Most drug screening will only show substances that are currently in the applicant?s system. Many of the most serious illegal substances can be purged from the system within 24 hours and this fact makes me think that the drug screening process cannot possibly be as effective as employers would hope it to be.
Unfortunately for employers, there is a wide variety of supplements and systems out there for people who wish to clean any unwanted substances from their systems. In this way the drug screening process is thwarted because you have a drug user slipping through the screening process only to continue their usage once they have been given the job. These supplements and cleansing systems are widely available at many sports stores and other health stores and can be 100% effective in fooling a drug test.
Another issue that drug screening does not address is the use of alcohol. Although alcoholics are not treated with the same distaste as are drug abusers, alcohol remains a serious and prevalent harmful substance. I believe that chronic alcohol abuse can easily lead to a great number of workplace injuries and screening potential employees for chronic alcohol consumption should be as much of a priority as is drug screening. All in all I have to say that I believe that the drug screening process is full of holes and until a better system is created in and alcohol is also tested for, employers that do test their employees are wasting a lot of money.
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