DRUG TESTS WORK

The Home Depot in Orlando has a simple message for job applicants: If you
want to be on the payroll, you have to pass a drug test.

"We are a family-oriented company, and we don't condone the use of drugs,"
said Penny Ericksen, district assistant for Home Depot's central Florida
stores. "And don't overlook the safety issue. That has to be a primary
concern for our employees and our customers."

That's the same position many businesses and government agencies have taken
with prospective and current employees, including school bus driver Linda
McKenzie in Seminole County, Fla. She will find out whether her refusal to
take a fourth random drug test will cost her job.

The state of Florida does not track how many companies screen employees for
drugs, but more than 80 percent of nearly 100 Orlando-area businesses say
they test job applicants, according to a 1995-1996 report by the
Longwood-based Employers Association of Florida.

"The testing is becoming more and more prevalent," said Christine Crews,
director of human resource services for the association, a 450-member
business organization. In Florida, employers get a 5 percent discount on
worker's compensation insurance premiums if they do any kind of employee
drug tests as part of a state-authorized drug-free workplace program.

"In order for the employer to obtain the discount, it requires
pre-employment and follow-up testing," Crews said. Employees who have sought
help from company-sponsored treatment programs for their drug problems often
have to submit to follow-up drug tests. "In addition to the pre-employment
tests, most companies are doing reasonable-suspicion and post-accident
testing."

Drug tests became especially popular during the early 1980s, when President
Ronald Reagan declared his war on drugs, said Andy Kayton, legal director
for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. The Navy has randomly
tested sailors since 1982. Some central Florida employers such as Orlando
Sentinel Communications and Lockheed Martin Corp. implemented drug-testing
policies in the mid-1980s.

"It is an economic decision made by private employers," Kayton said. "I
can't speak for them, but I'm assuming there are costs that are incurred by
employees who are inspired by the use of drugs or alcohol. Obviously, they
can create dangerous conditions for themselves or others for which a company
can be liable."

Unless you are in a safety-sensitive position such as McKenzie, government
agencies can screen for illegal substances only if they have a reasonable
suspicion that you're using drugs. Safety-sensitive government workers such
as police officers or school bus drivers can be tested at any time.

The rules are different for private employers. Unless you're protected by a
collective bargaining agreement that limits drug testing, private employers
can test for drugs at will. That means that besides asking you to take a
pre-employment test, private companies can test you for drugs at random
after you have been involved in a job-related accident or just to make sure
you are fit for your job.

People worried they will be victims of false-positive drug tests can ask for
retests. However, although most businesses pay for initial drug tests,
individuals usually have to pay for retests.

"The type of recourse you have will depend on where you are employed,"
Kayton said. If you work for the government, you could try to challenge the
validity of the testing methods, he said. "Many private employers also have
those same types of processes in place."

The fate of people who test positive and don't challenge the results rests
with their employers. While some companies support on-the-spot dismissals of
anyone who fails a drug test, others sponsor treatment programs for admitted
substance abusers.

Most drug tests are based on urinalysis, which can detect the presence of
cocaine for three or four days after use and marijuana for about three weeks
after use.

Employee drug testing made the news recently when McKenzie refused to submit
to a random drug test for the fourth time in 20 months. Even though McKenzie
had passed three times, her refusal amounted to failure and she was
suspended without pay. McKenzie, who has said she didn't want to take the
test because she needed to care for her bedridden mother, has appealed.

Since January 1995, the Seminole County school system has complied with a
federal law that subjects all bus drivers to drug tests, said John Reichert,
ombudsman and director of human resources and professional standards for the
Seminole County public schools. Of the county's 430 school bus drivers, just
four have tested positive, he said. "Overall, the policy has been well
received," Reichert said.

The Seminole County School Board will decide whether McKenzie should be
allowed to keep her job.

Construction companies and other private blue-collar industries have long
tested employees for drugs. For example, people eager to work for Kelsey
Construction in Orlando have to pass pre-employment drug tests as well as
subsequent tests "if there is a reason," said office/personnel manager
Marcine Wells.

White-collar businesses have caught the drug-testing bug too.

"We have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to drugs," said Universal
Studios Florida spokesman Tom Schroder. Even so, the company does not screen
job applicants for drugs but tests employees "if there is an incident or an
accident or if the manager has a suspicion about something happening in the
workplace," he said.

Circuit City in Richmond, Va., screens employees by asking them to pass drug
tests before and sometimes after they join the company, said spokesman
Morgan Stewart. Instead of relying on urine-based drug tests, Electronic
Data Systems required its 288 central Florida employees to pass drug tests
based on hair analysis, said company spokeswoman Diane Coffman.

DRUG TESTING

HERE'S WHAT TO EXPECT IF CALLED IN FOR EXAMINATION

[This sidebar to main story on this page was written by Jeanne Peck of The
Orlando Sentinel]

The first time Mark Williams Sr. took a drug test, he was surprised that the
person collecting his urine had to make sure it passed a temperature test.

"They put a temperature thing on the bottle," says Williams, 27, who took
his most recent drug test last September so he could work for Certified
Mechanical Co. Inc., a plumbing, heating and air conditioning company in
Apopka, Fla. In his adult life, he has passed more than a half-dozen
pre-employment or random drug tests.

"I never even thought about how people could bring in something with them,"
he says.

As a drug-test veteran, Williams now understands that screening employees
must follow strict procedures to discourage cheating during the five-minute
tests. For example, requiring the urine to register a temperature between 90
and 100 degrees Fahrenheit makes it more difficult for a drug-user to
smuggle in a "clean" sample provided by a friend.

There are other procedural requirements. So if you're going to take a
urine-based drug test for the first time, here's what to expect:

- - Be ready to prove your identity by producing a drivers license, passport,
employee badge or other official-looking picture identification. For a
job-related drug test, your supervisor can vouch for your identity in
person.

- - The person administering the test starts "chain of custody" procedures to
limit tampering opportunities. You provide some basic personal information
such as your Social Security number and address, and the person
administering the test breaks the seals on the collection kit. "You're
allowed to see that the kit hasn't been tampered with," says Christine
Claussen, owner of RN Expertise Inc., a drug-testing company in Altamonte
Springs, Fla.

- - You have to remove your coat and hat and empty your pockets. "They don't
have to strip, but they have to take off their outer garments," says Pat
James, health services and facilities consultant supervisor for the Florida
Agency for Health Care Administration in Tallahassee.

If you carry a purse or briefcase, you must surrender it during the test.
You can keep your wallet with you as long as the screening agent is allowed
to check it for possible contaminants. "We are not allowed to frisk or
search anyone in any way," Claussen says. This part of the procedure makes
it harder for people to smuggle in liquids or other materials that could be
used to dilute the sample.

- - Next, you will be led into a bathroom, where you'll have to wash your
hands with soap.

- - After that, you might be led into another bathroom -- one that doesn't
contain anything that could dilute the sample. "The toilet has to have
blueing in it so you can't dilute the sample with the water from the
toilet," says Barbara Bauer, supervisor of Florida Hospital Corporate
Health, a drug-testing company in Orlando. Other water sources, such as the
top of the toilet tank and the sink spigots, should be covered with
tamper-evident tape.

- - In most cases, you will be allowed to do your business in private, but the
test administrator must stay close. "We listen at the door for any
rustling," Bauer says, adding that test-takers have as long as three hours
to produce a sample. "If they cannot supply a specimen, then it's assumed
that they choose not to supply."

If you can't go, you fail, unless you can prove that you are medically
incapable of urinating.

- - You will be told not to flush the toilet when you finish. "You might be
able to dilute the sample with fresh water if you flush," Claussen says.

- - When you return the sample to the test administrator, he or she will note
the sample's temperature, Bauer says. The sample has to be between 90
degrees and 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Most fresh samples will be slightly
cooler than the normal body temperature of 98.6 degrees.

If the sample's temperature is out of range, you might have to provide
another, and you might have to provide it with someone of the same sex
watching over you.

- - After filling the collection cup, you'll return it to the test
administrator, who will place a seal over the top of the container and then
place it in a tamper-evident plastic bag. Then everything goes into a box,
which also is sealed. The person taking the drug test initials every seal on
the sample container to limit opportunities for tampering.

Says Claussen, "You get to watch every move I make."

- - Your sample is then taken to a lab, where it is tested for between five
and 10 illegal drugs. The most common "five-panel" test screens for
marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, PCP and opiates.

About 5 percent of the people Bauer screens test positive for illegal drugs.
About 2 percent of RN Expertise customers fail their tests, Claussen says.

Now that Mark Williams has done the drug-test drill, he's no longer shocked
by any part of the procedure. "I have no problem with it," he says. "If
people can't pass the test, it just opens up more jobs for me."

© 1997 Chicago Tribune