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Businesses Upgrade to
More Efficient Drug-Testing Method
New technology
allows for easier processing, quicker retrieval of results
Published on
Tuesday, October 8, 2002
Tara Patty
Kansas State
Collegian
Businesses
all over the country have turned to body-fluid analysis to test
potential employees for illegal drug use, and the process is
becoming easier and cheaper than ever.
Wanda Coleman, assistant manager of Dillons West,
said her store no longer uses traditional urine testing. Instead,
she said, they test the saliva of job applicants.
Coleman said she
has to ensure the person being tested hasn't had a mint or any other
candy in their mouth within 10 minutes of the test.
"It's kind of like
a toothbrush. You stick it in their mouth for two minutes, and it
gathers saliva," she said.
Aaron Smith, senior
in digital art, said he thinks illegal drug screening is necessary
for employers. He has undergone several illegal drug screenings for
employment purposes.
Employers may
encounter problems, Smith said, if their employees call in sick or
don't come to work because of illegal drug use. He said he would
always be willing to cooperate with employers when it comes to drug
screening.
Coleman said
Dillons administers illegal drug screening because of corporate
policy. After the specimen is collected, she said, the store then
sends it in for testing and receives results back within four days.
This is an improvement over the traditional urine testing the store
used to do, she said.
Most companies that
analyze these samples are located on the east coast, she said. The
company the store uses for the saliva tests is located in Kansas.
Dillons has been administering the saliva test for the last 18
months, she said.
All potential
employees take the test before they can be hired. However, hired
employees undergo additional testing only if they are involved in an
on-the-job accident.
"I think it's a
good thing to use drug testing," Coleman said. "We are big on safety
-- you don't want someone to be smoking pot and then coming to work
and being clumsy."
Randy Wilkinson,
human relations specialist at Sears in Manhattan Town Center, said
Sears also uses illegal drug screening as a part of the hiring
process. The store uses a new local company that offers results
instantaneously, compared to the two-week wait with other companies.
Wilkinson describes
the new test as similar to a pregnancy test. Once the specimen is
taken, the test administrators stick an indicator into the urine to
see if there are traces of THC in the sample.
Sears employees are
tested before they are hired or in case of an accident or suspicion
of drug use.
"There is actually
a correlation between drugs and theft," Wilkinson said.
The screening is
administered within 24 hours of an employee's hiring, he said. This
helps cut down on the possibility of someone circumventing the test
if they have been using controlled substances.
The test is given
in a secure environment, he said. If someone does test positive on
the initial screening, the specimen is sent in for an actual
analysis. In these cases, a medical examiner will call the
individual to see if he or she is taking any prescription drugs that
may have shown up on the test.
The same course of
action is used with the saliva testing. Coleman said the medical
examiner investigates any positive result before notifying the
Dillons store of any problems with the testing.
"We don't want to
accuse someone of being a drug user if they aren't," she said.
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