Although testing for substance abuse can be intrusive, inaccurate, and ineffective at ferreting out those who are a threat to others, it can be morally justified in certain carefully circumscribed cases.

As drug testing has become increasingly used to maximize corporate profits by minimizing the economic impact of employee substance abuse, numerous arguments have been advanced which draw the ethical justification for such testing into question, including the position that testing amounts to a violation of employee privacy by attempting to regulate an employee's behavior in her own home, outside the employer's legitimate sphere of control. This article first proposes that an employee's right to privacy is violated (...) when personal information is collected or used by the employer in a way which is irrelevant to the terms of employment. This article then argues that drug testing is relevant and therefore ethically justified within the terms of the employment agreement, and therefore does not amount to a violation of an employee's right to privacy. Arguments to the contrary, including the aforementioned appeal to the employer's limited sphere of control, do not account for reasonable constraints on employee privacy which are intrinsic to the demands of the workplace and implicit in the terms of the employment contract. (shrink)

Various kinds of alcohol and drug testing, such as preemployment, routine, and for-cause testing, are commonly performed by employers. While healthcare organizations usually require preemployment drug testing, they vary on whether personnel will be subjected to further testing. Recently, a call has gone out for postincident testing among physicians who are involved in serious, preventable events, especially ones leading to a patient's death. This article will offer a number of counterarguments to that proposal (...) and discuss an alternate approach: that health institutions can better improve patient safety and employees’ well-being by implementing an organizational policy of “speaking up” when system operators notice work behaviors or environmental factors that threaten harm or peril. The article will conclude with a description of various strategies that facilitate speaking up, and why the practice constitutes a superior alternative to mandatory alcohol and drug testing in the wake of serious, harm-causing m.. (shrink)

By some estimates one-third of American corporations now require their employees to be tested for drug u se. The se requ iremen ts are com patible with general employment law while prom oting the public's in terest in figh ting drug use. Mo reover , the Unite d State s Supreme Court has ruled that drug tes ting prog rams a re cons titutionally p ermiss ible within both the public and the private sectors. It appears m (...) andatory drug tes ting is a permanent fixture of American corporate life. (Bakaly, C. G., Grossman, J. M. 1989) The legal roots of m anda tory drug testing are found in the com mon la w doctrin e of "employment at will." That doctrine states that either party to an employment contract can termina te the contract for any reason, at any time, unless the contract specifies otherwise. As the Court h eld in Adair v. United States (208 U.S. 161, 175-6, 1908), the employer "was at liberty, in his d iscretion , to discha rge [the e mploy ee] from service w ithout givin g any reason for so do ing." In unqualified form, this doctrine would give employers effective control over employees. Employers could establish any requirements they wished for prospective and current employees. Not only could they decline to hire employees who will refuse drug tests, they could likewise decline to hire people with characteristics, beliefs, or behavior they dislike. Employees must endure these requirements or seek emplo yment elsewhere. However, since m ost peo ple hav e limited job opp ortunities , they will be forced to "a ccept" these require ments , no ma tter how objection able. Courts and legislatures have since recognized the abuses this 283 284 Drugs, Morality, and the Law.. (shrink)

In this article I attempt to examine the justification for the mandatory drug testing of employees. The justification commonly assumes the form of the productivity argument which states that an employer has a proprietary right to regulate the purchased time of the employee. Since the employer may be rightfully concerned with the employee''s productive output, so this argument goes, the employer retains the right to motivate production. By extension, the employee''s behavior outside of the workplace which affects his (...) or her productive capacity may also be regulated, including drug use which may affect this capacity. Thus it is claimed that the employer has the right to test employees for drug use and to impose sanctions when it is discovered.I argue that the implications of the productivity argument lead to unacceptable consequences and thus must be rejected. The productivity argument can be examined in light of a thought-experiment in which the reader is asked to imagine the discovery of two drugs, both of which enhance employee productivity. Calling these drugs hedonine and pononine, I imagine the first to be pleasurable to the employee while the second is accompanied by a degree of pain and discomfort. Since the mandated use of both of these imagined drugs would be consistent with the productivity argument, I maintain that the productivity argument thereby fails and so must be rejected. As employee drug testing is justified by this argument, it must also be rejected. (shrink)

Programs of drug testing welfare recipients are increasingly common in US states and have been considered elsewhere. Though often intensely debated, such programs are complicated to evaluate because their aims are ambiguous – aims like saving money may be in tension with aims like referring people to treatment. We assess such programs using a proportionality approach, which requires that for ethical acceptability a practice must be: reasonably likely to meet its aims, sufficiently important in purpose as to outweigh (...) harms incurred, and lower in costs than feasible alternatives. In the light of empirical findings, we argue that the programs fail the three requirements. Pursuing recreational drug users is not important in the light of costs incurred, while dependent users who may require referral are usually identifiable without testing and typically need a broader approach than one focussing on drugs. Drug testing of welfare recipients is therefore not ethically acceptable policy. (shrink)

Most of the debate about drug testing in the workplace has focused on the right to privacy. Proponents of testing have had to tackle difficult questions concerning the nature, extent, and weight of the privacy rights of employees. This paper examines a different kind of argument — the claim that because corporations are responsible for harms committed by employees while under the influence of drugs, they are entitled to test for drug use. This argument has considerable (...) intuitive appeal, because it seems, at least at first glance, to bypass the issue of privacy rights altogether. The argument turns, not on rights, but on the nature and conditions of responsibility. We may therefore call it an ought implies can argument.In spite of its initial appeal, however, the argument does not succeed in circumventing the claims of privacy rights. Even responsibility for the actions of others does not entitle us to do anything at all to control their behavior; we must look to rights, among other things, to determine what sorts of controls are morally permissible. In addition, the argument rests on unjustified assumptions about the connection between drug testing and the prevention of drug-related harm. (shrink)

The use of opioid contracts, which often require patients to submit to random drug screens, have become widespread amongst physicians using opioids to treat chronic pain. The main purpose of the contract is to improve care through better adherence to opioid therapy but there is little evidence as to its efficacy. The author suggests the use of opioid contracts and random drug testing destroys patients' trust which impacts health outcomes, and that physicians' motivation for their use are (...) concerns about prosecution, medication abuse and misuse, and addiction. Statistics are provided to counter fears, and evidence is offered suggesting opioid contracts are unenforceable and lack efficacy; random drug testing is often inconclusive, and a patient's trust improves adherence to treatment. (shrink)

It is common for physicians who prescribe opioids for chronic pain to have their patients sign an opioid contract in order to receive opioid therapy. A vast majority of these contracts contain a stipulation requiring patients to submit to random drug testing which screens for both licit and illicit drugs. Physicians who prescribe opioids may be concerned about prosecution and disciplinary actions; medication abuse and misuse; and addiction. Steven Passik et al. write, “…physicians still fear the risk of (...) abuse or addiction as well as the potential legal consequences of their prescribing.”Issues surrounding OC/RDT need a closer look with a focus on enforceability and efficacy of the opioid contract; accuracy and complications of drug screens and their interpretation; and the importance of trust between patient and physician. In addition, it is vital to dispel fears with facts regarding prosecutions, nonmedical use of prescription opioids, and addiction. (shrink)

George Will, the well-known pundit, once observed: “A society's recreation is charged with moral significance. Sport—and a society that takes it seriously—would be debased if it did not strictly forbid things that blur the distinction between the triumph of character and the triumph of chemistry.” In opposition, Dan Duchaine, the highly publicized “steroid guru” and counter-culture columnist, declared: “There comes a time for many in competitive athletics where winning is more important than those initial goals of health, recreation, and relaxation.” (...) The parallels of these two philosophies to life in general are patent simply by substituting “sports” and “winning” for “career” and “success,” respectively.This paper will review the basis for banning anabolic steroids in athletics, and consider especially the recent medical findings that support this prohibition. This survey leads into a discussion of the available deterrents, and the secondary, but essential, role of random drug testing as a final safeguard. (shrink)

George Will, the well-known pundit, once observed: “A society's recreation is charged with moral significance. Sport—and a society that takes it seriously—would be debased if it did not strictly forbid things that blur the distinction between the triumph of character and the triumph of chemistry.” In opposition, Dan Duchaine, the highly publicized “steroid guru” and counter-culture columnist, declared: “There comes a time for many in competitive athletics where winning is more important than those initial goals of health, recreation, and relaxation.” (...) The parallels of these two philosophies to life in general are patent simply by substituting “sports” and “winning” for “career” and “success,” respectively.This paper will review the basis for banning anabolic steroids in athletics, and consider especially the recent medical findings that support this prohibition. This survey leads into a discussion of the available deterrents, and the secondary, but essential, role of random drug testing as a final safeguard. (shrink)

Book reviewed in this article: Ethical Issues in Drug Testing, Approval and Pricing: The Clot‐Dissolving Drugs. By Baruch Brody.

In late May 1984, Irish citizens were perturbed to hear that a thirty-one year old man died while participating, as a paid volunteer, in a clinical drug trial at the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology in Dublin. At the inquest, held in September 1984, the State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, affirmed that the cause of death was the reaction of the trial drug Eproxindine 4/0091 with a major tranquillizer which had been given less than fifteen hours earlier as part (...) of regular treatment for a psychiatric disorder. The mixture of the two drugs, he went on to say, increased their effect by between twenty and thirty times their normal strength, and the volunteer had died of cardiac depression. (shrink)

In late May 1984, Irish citizens were perturbed to hear that a thirty-one year old man died while participating, as a paid volunteer, in a clinical drug trial at the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology in Dublin. At the inquest, held in September 1984, the State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, affirmed that the cause of death was the reaction of the trial drug Eproxindine 4/0091 with a major tranquillizer which had been given less than fifteen hours earlier as part (...) of regular treatment for a psychiatric disorder. The mixture of the two drugs, he went on to say, increased their effect by between twenty and thirty times their normal strength, and the volunteer had died of cardiac depression. (shrink)

There is consensus that children have questionable decisional capacity and, therefore, in general a parent or a guardian must give permission to enroll a child in a research study. Moreover, freedom from duress and coercion, the cardinal rule in research involving adults, is even more important for children. This principle is embodied prominently in the Nuremberg Code (1947) and is embodied in various federal human research protection regulations. In a program named "SATURN" (Student Athletic Testing Using Random Notification), each (...) school in the Oregon public-school system may implement a mandatory drug-testing program for high school student athletes. A prospective study to identify drug use among student-athletes, SATURN is designed both to evaluate the influence of random drug testing and to validate the survey data through identification of individuals who do not report drug use. The enrollment of students in the drug-testing study is a requirement for playing a school sport. In addition to the coercive nature of this study design, there were ethically questionable practices in recruitment, informed consent, and confidentiality. This article concerns the question of whether research can be conducted with high school students in conjunction with a mandatory drug-testing program, while adhering to prevailing ethical standards regarding human-subjects research and specifically the participation of children in research. (shrink)

Even after several decades of human drug development, there remains an absence of published, substantial, comprehensive data to validate the use of animals in preclinical drug testing, and to point to their pr...

There is consensus that children have questionable decisional capacity and, therefore, in general a parent or a guardian must give permission to enroll a child in a research study. Moreover, freedom from duress and coercion, the cardinal rule in research involving adults, is even more important for children. This principle is embodied prominently in the Nuremberg Code (1947) and is embodied in various federal human research protection regulations. In a program named "SATURN" (Student Athletic Testing Using Random Notification), each (...) school in the Oregon public-school system may implement a mandatory drug-testing program for high school student athletes. A prospective study to identify drug use among student-athletes, SATURN is designed both to evaluate the influence of random drug testing and to validate the survey data through identification of individuals who do not report drug use. The enrollment of students in the drug-testing study is a requirement for playing a school sport. In addition to the coercive nature of this study design, there were ethically questionable practices in recruitment, informed consent, and confidentiality. This article concerns the question of whether research can be conducted with high school students in conjunction with a mandatory drug-testing program, while adhering to prevailing ethical standards regarding human-subjects research and specifically the participation of children in research. (shrink)

The proposed article provides an overview of European and North American states’ legislation, which regulates the procedure for pre-clinical research, clinical trials and state registration of medicinal products, as well as responsibility for its violation, analysis of the problems and prospects of adaptation of the national legislation to European legal space, particularly in the field of criminal and legal regulation of relations in the sphere of pre-clinical trials, clinical trials and state registration of medicine. The emphasis is put on the (...) matter that inclusion of Article 321-2 into the Criminal Code of Ukraine leads to a false concurrence with other provisions of the Code. The author proposes to introduce recent EU legislation (Acquis Communautaire) on legal regulation of clinical trials and circulation of medicine into the law of Ukraine, clarify terminology related to Fundamentals of Ukrainian Legislation on Health Protection and the Special Part of criminal law, introduce criminal liability for legal entities that will provide effective control over negative effects of research centers’ activity. It is suggested to develop legislative proposals to improve the provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provide legal protection of relations arising in connection with pre-clinical research, clinical trials and state registration of medicinal products. (shrink)

There is consensus that children have questionable decisional capacity and, therefore, in general a parent or a guardian must give permission to enroll a child in a research study. Moreover, freedom from duress and coercion, the cardinal rule in research involving adults, is even more important for children. This principle is embodied prominently in the Nuremberg Code and is embodied in various federal human research protection regulations. In a program named "SATURN", each school in the Oregon public-school system may implement (...) a mandatory drug-testing program for high school student athletes. A prospective study to identify drug use among student-athletes, SATURN is designed both to evaluate the influence of random drug testing and to validate the survey data through identification of individuals who do not report drug use. The enrollment of students in the drug-testing study is a requirement for playing a school sport. In addition to the coercive nature of this study design, there were ethically questionable practices in recruitment, informed consent, and confidentiality. This article concerns the question of whether research can be conducted with high school students in conjunction with a mandatory drug-testing program, while adhering to prevailing ethical standards regarding human-subjects research and specifically the participation of children in research. (shrink)

The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 12, Issue 7, Page 23-25, July 2012.