DRUG TESTING OF WORKERS KEEPS RISING

City's Police Recruits Facing Hair Analysis

Though it was virtually unheard of 15 years ago, mandatory drug testing in
the workplace has spread faster than marijuana smoke at a Grateful Dead
concert.

Testing requirements now blanket millions of people nationwide - especially
job seekers. And technology is improving to the point that it's difficult,
if not impossible, for drug users to escape the net of some advanced tests.

"It's becoming more accepted and more widespread. And it's still growing,"
said Daryl G. Grecich, a spokesman for the Institute for a Drug-Free
Workplace, a pro-testing group in Washington, D.C.

The Chicago Police Department is the most recent employer here to crack
down on drug users. But the latest sweep isn't in the streets - it's now
screened through hair samples, a cutting-edge technology that can extend
the reach of a drug test almost 90 times for most substances.

"We've had people show up for processing, and when they were told aobut the
hair testing, they've just gotten up and walked away," said police
spokesman Keven Morison.

No profession, it seems, is immune. Virtually all of the Fortune 200
companies - the nation's biggest firms - require their employees or some
job candidates to submit to some kind of drug testing, Grecich said.
Pre-employment screening - requiring a job applicat to take a drug test as
a condition of employment - is the most common practice.

Nationwide, 44 percent of workers say their bosses require some form of
drug testing, according to a federal survey. It's no different in Chicago.
Of the area's 10 largest private employers surveyed by the Sun-Times, the
nine firms that responded all require some kind of drug testing.

UAL Corp., the Elk Grove Township parent of United Airlines, and
Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc. appear to have the most extensive testing
programs among top Chicago area employers.

The air carrier, which has about 90,000 employees worldwide, is subject to
federal mandates on drug testing. Motorola was a leader in testing among
major companies nationwide, establishing its "universal" program in the
late 1980s.

UAL employs almost every type of testing, said Joe Hopkins, a spokesman.
All job candidates are subject ot pre-employment screening. Workers in
safety-sensitive areas, right down to the mechanics who work on buses that
transport passengers, are suject to random testing, he said.

At Motorola, which has about 140,000 employees worldwide, the focus is on
detecting potential problems and getting employees into treatment programs,
said Margot Brown, a Motorola spokeswoman.

"It's not a one-strike-and-you're-out approach," Brown said. "We really
have been able to uncover problems early and keep employees in the work
force."

The smaller your employer is, the less likely you are to be tested.

Only 23 percent of workers at small companies (fewer than 25 employees) say
their bosses require some kind of testing, according to a survey published
by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

"Everybody forgets that most people work for small companies,"

The number of employees who say their bosses have drug-testing program
almost triples (to 68 percent) for workers at big companies, the
government's study showed.

Despite the nationwide testing boom, civil liberties groups remain
staunchly opposed to any form of testing - even for cops.

"You might as well crumple up a copy of the Bill of Rights and put it in
the cup before you [urinate] into it," said William Spain, a spokesman for
the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. An employer's sole concer,
Spain said, should be whether a worker is impaired. And drug testing, he
said, won't measure impairment on the job.

"We don't approve of airline pilots flying stoned or drunk - or even
depressed, for that matter," Spain said. "But simple dexterity tests for
transportation workers, which would simply tell employers whether you were
capable of working that shift, are much more effective."

Workers of the world are not uniting behind that argument, however.

Unlike the Chicago police recruits who walked out on the cit's hair test,
most workers seem to be accepting drug testing as a fact of life.

Even among workers who describe themselves as "current illicit drug users,"
only about 30 percent say they are "less likely" to work for a company that
requires drug testing as a condition of employment, according to the
government study.

An of workers who don't currently use drugs, only about 6 percent said they
were "less likely" to work for a company that requires drug testing as a
condition of employment, the study showed.

All that drug testing - and acceptance of drug testing - has created a boon
for the testing industry, which backs groups such as the Institute for a
Drug-Free Workplace.

SmithKline Beecham, one of the nation's largest testing firms, has done 24
million drug tests in the last 10 years.

Boston-based Psychemedics Corp. holds the patent for the hair-drug analysis
process and has been using the technology since 1987. Though urinalysis
remains the most common method of testing, Psychemedics' sales have boomed
in the last few years.

In 1992, Psychemecis had $3.9 in sales. By 1996, sales had tripled to $12.2
million, according to company reports.

The company says it has more than 1,000 corporate clients nation-wide,
including big names such as General Motors Corp. and Chicago-based WMX
Technologies, parent company of Waste Management. Casino companies also
rely heavily on hair testing, ever worried that drug users and large sums
of cash don't mix.

More than 30 police departments, including New York City and Chicago, use
Psychemedics to test police recruits, said Raoymond Kubacki Jr., president
and chief executive officer of Psychemedics.

The hair test can detect drugs that were taken 90 days before a sample was
gathered. Most drugs can escape detection through urinalysis within a few
days. The test requires a swath of hair that is roughly the width of a
pencil and about 1.5 inches long. If someone is bald, body hair samples are
taken.

For the Chicago Police Department, the results are encouraging. The
department is using hair and urinalysis side-by-side. A source close to the
department said 80 potential Chicago police officers who have passed the
urine test have failed the hair analysis.

Morison, the police spokesman, would not confirm an exact number, but said,
"There has been a significant increase in the number of people who have
been rejected because of positive drug screens since we began using hair
testing."