DRUG TESTING 'WON'T SPREAD IN CANADA'

UVic Researcher Says Most Workplace Use Will Remain In The U.S.

Drug testing in Canadian workplaces will remain prevalent in
safety-sensitive sectors such as transportation and manufacturing as
well as primary resource industries such as forestry and mining, but
will likely never reach the widespread levels in the U.S. labour
force, says a University of Victoria researcher.

Scott Macdonald said Canadian laws surrounding privacy and personal
freedoms differ from the U.S. and often make cases difficult to win
in Canadian courts. Those factors and the costs and logistics
associated with testing, as well as the firing and hiring of
employees amid a tight job market, could also make the decision to
test workers difficult for companies, he added.

Macdonald is an associate professor of epidemiology at the University
of Victoria and assistant director of research at the UVic-based
Centre For Addictions Research. He's giving a free lecture --
Weighing The Scientific Evidence for Drug Testing In The Workplace As
A Safety Intervention -- next Wednesday, 4:30 p.m., at UVic's Human
and Social Development Building.

A recent study conducted by the Centre For Addictions Research and
B.C. Mental Health and Addictions Research Network indicates drug
testing in the workplace has increased dramatically in North America
over the past 20 years, but chiefly in the United States where 95 per
cent of the top Fortune 500 companies have drug testing in place.

In Canada, the study involving businesses with more than 100
employees found only 10.3 per cent of the companies checked had testing.

The topic of Macdonald's discussion will be whether the tests are justified.

"I'll be looking at studies that have been done to justify a drug
test and whether the findings are reasonable based on the methodology
used. It's a topic that people have strong feelings about. It's not
about supporting drug use. It's about the science [involved in testing]."

Macdonald will discuss his experience as an expert witness in several
court cases where drug testing was contested.

He said workplace drug testing in the U.S. proliferated under an
executive order in the 1980s from then-president Ronald Reagan,
starting with government agencies and filtering down to corporations,
medium-sized businesses and even "mom-and-pop operations."

But in Canada, a failed case by a Canadian subsidiary of a large U.S.
oil corporation 10 years ago "put the lid on rapid expansion to drug
testing." The case clashed with human rights and other privacy issues
when the company initiated random testing and also told workers they
had to report whether they were receiving any treatment for drugs or alcohol.

Canada has employee-standards legislation outlining "what employers
can and cannot do with employees and human rights legislation about
how workers can be treated," added Macdonald, whereas in the U.S.
testing "is viewed as OK because drugs are illegal."

The lecture in Room HSD A270 is open to the public. Video
conferencing is available at info@carbc.net

On the web: www.silink.ca