Every state has its own set of regulations governing drug testing or monitoring at the workplace. For instance, Alaska has voluntary drug testing rules that employers must abide by if they decide to test job seekers or workers for drugs. Alaska does not, however, have mandatory drug testing legislation.
In many areas, it is legal for employers to test job applicants for drugs or alcohol as long as they are aware that this is a standard part of the hiring process for all employees. In most cases, the testing can’t start until the candidate has received a job offer.
However, even in jurisdictions where marijuana usage is permitted for either medical or recreational purposes, employers may lawfully reject job candidates who test positive for the drug during a pre-employment drug test.
In This Article...
What exactly happens during a pre-employment drug test?
Urinalysis
The most popular pre-employment test is a urine test, which is usually administered after a conditional job offer has been made. Even after the drug’s effects have worn off and its remnants have been present in the body for a long time, a urine test can still reveal evidence of drug usage. Pre-employment urine drug tests frequently look for marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines and methamphetamines, PCP, and opiates, while employers can also test for a wide range of other drugs. The only technique recognized for federally required testing is a urinalysis, which is frequently selected for both regulated and non-regulated staff.
Hair Analysis
According to Psychemedics, a market leader in hair testing technology, hair testing has a longer detection window for drug usage ranging up to 90 days. It does not detect alcohol and will only detect past use. Methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, painkillers, and PCP are typical drugs that are detected in hair samples. The employee is asked to cut 100 hair strands close to the scalp and place them in a discrete spot on their head.
Drinking Water
Because oral fluid testing is strictly monitored, it is challenging for personnel to falsify, adulterate, or cheat the test. Additionally, this test can be gathered on-site, saving money and time. The oral fluid testing window varies for each medication, just like traditional testing techniques. Most importantly, oral fluid testing reveals recent usage, namely within the first four hours following drug use. The detection window for oral fluid for the majority of drugs is one to three days. The employee will be needed to swab the inside of their mouth to produce a sample of oral fluid.
Does the pre-employment drug test involve watching you urinate?
Urine and oral fluid tests are the two types of drug testing you are most likely to experience as part of a drug treatment program or job application. In other words, urinate and spit. Since urine tests are performed so frequently, their abbreviation, UA, is used frequently in recovery slang. You’ve probably already consumed a reasonable amount of UAs if you’re now receiving drug treatment.
During President Nixon’s “War on Drugs,” urinalysis testing first became popular. It was initially employed to check returning Vietnam veterans for drugs like heroin and marijuana before being widely adopted in the civilian world as part of routine job applications and methadone treatment programs. Although a small but growing number of treatment providers who focus on harm reduction are attempting to move away from the practice, UAs are already nearly synonymous with drug treatment. The fact that so many healthcare professionals feel compelled to watch the drop is among the most embarrassing parts of urine testing. Thus, they are observing you urinate. This is meant to discourage people from using fake urine or other adulterants that might hide the presence of drug metabolites. But for many of us, it feels like simply another type of humiliation we must endure during the course of addiction.
Lab Vs Rapid Urinalysis
A rapid-results test, which can be performed by a layperson and provides results in a matter of minutes, or a laboratory test will be required if you are asked to submit to a urine test. The first of the two sorts of readings in a lab test is essentially the same as the on-site test that your employer or healthcare practitioner would interpret in front of you: an immunoassay. Antibodies are used in immunoassay tests to find pharmaceuticals. They provide quick findings but are unable to identify precise drug levels and are prone to false positives. In essence, they are able to identify an initial drug positive, but additional testing is required to guarantee the correctness of these findings. They are frequently referred to as screening tests as a result. There is no need for additional testing if nothing is found during the screening.
However, when analyzing urine in a lab, a positive immunoassay test will start a more involved test called gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Confirmatory testing, often known as GC-MS testing, is performed to verify the accuracy of the original positive. This test can distinguish between distinct drug kinds within a wider category (oxycodone versus heroin, for example), and it will yield levels of drug metabolite concentration that may be used to determine, generally speaking, how much or how recently a drug was consumed. The detection cut-offs differ. Because poppy seeds can result in a morphine positive, the detection levels for government personnel are set at a level which should, under normal circumstances, be unable to pick up the metabolites from poppy seeds. As a result, the opiate cut-offs for government personnel are higher than those set by some civilian testing facilities.
How Much Urine is Needed for a Drug Test?
Urine tests typically identify metabolites for a longer period of time than other tests intended to confirm short-term use. Actual detection timeframes range from one to thirty days, depending on the chemical and individual metabolism (and potentially even longer for drugs with very long half-lives). This kind of testing often cannot identify the presence of a substance that was recently consumed because it takes a few hours for a drug to degrade into urine.
Oral Fluid
Saliva is used in oral fluid testing to look for drug metabolites as well as the parent substance. These can be carried out locally, much like urine tests, or sent to a lab for a more thorough examination. These tests are helpful for employee drug tests, where test administrators might want to lessen how intrusive the testing is. After all, swabbing someone’s cheek is far less invasive than watching them urinate in a cup. These tests are able to detect drugs more sooner than urine testing, but they do so for shorter periods of time. Oral fluid testing is not now allowed for federal workplace testing because it is not federally controlled, although that could change in the future.
Blood
Since blood tests only identify parent substances, they have one of the lowest detection windows but also one of the fastest. When performed within the detection window, a blood test is a highly accurate indicator of drug usage, but they are still rarely used. This is possibly due to the fact that these tests need exceedingly intrusive, challenging procedures that must be carried out by a skilled specialist. Depending on how much blood is needed, blood samples are normally obtained intravenously, but occasionally using a fingerstick. The majority of drugs stop being detectable in blood within 24 to 48 hours, so this kind of test is best utilized to identify very recent drug use.
Hair
Hair testing is not used to identify short-term or intermediate use, in contrast to the three testing techniques described above. Instead, hair tests are designed to find long-term use over a 90-day period. These tests are sometimes called “hair follicle testing, but that
S is a misnomer. The sample is taken from the base of the head rather than being pulled up from the scalp, and the inner hair cortex rather than the end follicle or exterior hair shaft is subjected to the actual test. Because of this, it’s incredibly challenging to pass a hair test employing special shampoos or hair dyes, however there are undoubtedly businesses that will make this claim!
The test administrator simply clips a lock of hair that is at least an inch and a half long for this type of examination. Hair samples can originate from any location on the body, not only the head, as long as there is enough of it. Therefore, keeping your hair short won’t shield you from a test and can result in a far more intrusive (and embarrassing) request.
Hair tests can detect drug usage up to 90 days ago, or roughly three months, by measuring drug metabolites. Although cut-offs can vary, generally speaking, these tests are not intended to detect extremely infrequent use. Instead, they are designed to spot continued or frequent drug or alcohol use. They are frequently employed in legal contexts, such as rulings on children’s welfare. Despite occasional catastrophic events brought on by laboratory mistakes, hair testing is thought to be quite precise and nearly impenetrable. The fact that coarse, dark hair, like that frequently found in black and indigenous populations, may store some drug metabolites in higher concentrations than thinner, lighter hair, placing people of color at an unfair disadvantage in comparison to their Caucasian peers, is a very serious criticism of these tests.
Is it preferable to reject or fail a drug test?
Refusing to submit to a drug test is similar to refusing to submit to a breathalyzer test: you have the right to refuse, but passing the test is usually preferable. Instead of asking if you can refuse a drug test, you should ask whether doing so is a wise course of action.
There are various grounds for ordering drug tests. Your employer will probably require a drug test if you start a new job. Your employer might request a random test if you’re employed. Even your doctor might occasionally ask for a drug test if it’s necessary for their care. The point is that any number of circumstances could lead to a request for a drug test.
If you don’t pass a drug test, can you still get a job?
Employers frequently demand drug testing as a prerequisite for hiring new employees and maintaining current ones. Actually, it is less frequent for a job application to neglect to mention that the employer would conduct a drug test before extending an offer of employment.
Some government employers conduct drug tests, and it happens often in the private sector as well. Employees should take it seriously when an employer warns that a drug test will be required as part of the employment process due to its widespread use.
Employees of both the government and the private sector are guaranteed the right to privacy under the state constitution of California. According to Californian courts, employers are permitted to legally test their employees for drugs. This is valid as long as nobody is singled out or subjected to discrimination, such as when an employee is subjected to a drug test solely on the basis of their race. This means that, as opposed to random testing, many workplace drug testing programs must apply to all employees.
A judge will utilize a specific balancing test of an employer’s justification for testing versus an employee’s right to privacy if the legality of a drug test is contested. An employer can still decline to hire someone who has tested positive for marijuana even if California has a “compassionate usage law governing legal medicinal marijuana use.”
To sum up, companies in California are generally allowed to demand that their workers submit to drug testing as a condition of employment. Employers must test all candidates for a position in order for the drug test process to be regarded as legal. Additionally, they are prohibited from favoring one applicant over another because of their race, nationality, place of origin, disability, or any other form of discrimination. Employees in California whose employment do not have an impact on public safety are typically not deemed to be subject to random drug tests as being legal.
When are Drug Tests Carried Out Legally in California?
In certain circumstances, drug testing is permitted in the private sector. Here are a few illustrations:
- The most prevalent sort of drug testing employed by private businesses is pre-employment testing on job seekers. Pre-employment testing has been affirmed by courts on the grounds that businesses have a right to look for suitable candidates who are drug-free. Additionally, job seekers who do not want to be tested can decide not to apply for positions that do;
- Testing is seen as legal when employers have a good faith suspicion that an employee is abusing drugs. In general, some frequent examples include seeing drug use or physical indicators of use, erratic behavior, or a report of usage from a trustworthy source; nevertheless, what constitutes reasonable suspicion differs depending on the court;
- Random Drug Testing: Random drug testing is frequently viewed as a technique to violate an employee’s right to privacy. As a result, some states have laws that forbid random testing. However, numerous courts have upheld random testing, particularly in settings where worker safety is a concern. This holds true even when there isn’t any direct employee supervision. The drug testing must be conducted at random and not targeted at any particular staff for other purposes. This might comprise racial or religious preferences of an employee or other discriminatory factors; and/or
- Drug testing following an accident is typically connected to workers’ compensation claims. After an accident, a positive drug test frequently leads to the assumption that alcohol had a role in the collision. Before the employee is entitled to compensation benefits, this presumption must be refuted.
The following methods of employment drug testing are regarded as permissible in California specifically:
- Pre-Employment Testing: Before a candidate is hired, an employer has the right to request that they submit to a drug test;
- Random Testing: Legally, a worker may only be subjected to a drug test at random if they hold a job that involves the public’s safety; and
- Reasonable Suspicion: A court is likely to support the validity and purpose of the conducted drug test if an employer has a reasonable suspicion that an employee is using or abusing drugs or alcohol.
Are There Specific Types of Drugs that California Employers Typically Test For?
Which medications may be tested for will depend on the particular situation. The majority of companies test for five popular illegal drugs using urinalysis:
- amphetamines like ecstasy, crank, speed, and meth;
- THC, found in cannabis, cannabinoids, and hash;
- crack or cocaine
- opioid drugs like heroin, morphine, opium, and codeine; or
- Phencyclidine, sometimes known as angel dust or PCP.
Many private employers don’t have a cap on how many substances they can test for. Additionally, certain employers might do extra drug tests, like:
- Barbiturates;
- Methadone;
- Ethanol;
- and hallucinogens
- Inhalants.
An employer might conduct a drug test on a potential employee using a variety of techniques, as follows:
- examining a tube containing their spit or saliva;
- requesting them to submit a urine sample for drug testing;
- utilizing a hair sample from the subject; and/or
- undergoing a medical examination that looks at the person’s nails.
As was already noted, medical marijuana, or cannabis, is subject to California’s compassionate use statute. The aforementioned balance test will be conducted by a judge when the legality of a drug test is in issue. In addition, the court will take into account things like:
- whether a pre-employment drug test was conducted before hiring a candidate; and/or
- Whether a drug test was administered at random or because there was a good reason to suspect drug addiction.
Despite the fact that marijuana usage for both medical and recreational purposes is now legal in California, employers are still allowed to reject applicants who have tested positive for marijuana.
Are There Consequences If I Fail a Drug Test in California?
Each state or locality has its own laws governing workplace drug testing and the penalties for failing a drug test. In general, the business has the right to lawfully reject your application if you test positive for drugs prior to employment. Additionally, if you test positive for drugs while working, your employer has the right to lawfully terminate your employment or stop you from getting promoted.
For failing a drug test, your state may also refuse to pay you unemployment benefits, workers’ compensation benefits, or disability benefits. Nevertheless, not all jurisdictions or employers have a “zero tolerance policy,” and the repercussions of failing a drug test sometimes vary by employment.
This also applies to California. If you fail a drug test in California, your employer may legally reject your application for employment or fire you, depending on the terms of your hiring. The employer may decide to keep you on after you’ve been employed but decide against promoting you until you pass the subsequent round of drug testing.