Drugs in the Workplace: Setting Harris Straight

Abstract

Harris purports to set the record straight about drugs in the workplace. Instead, he perpetuates old myths and cynicism about the American workforce and gives us no reason to change our original thesis. That is, generally speaking, the American workforce is sober and its productivity is not affected to any great extent by alcohol and drugs. In our original article we made two points. First, we stated that no one has determined with any degree of certainty the magnitude of the so-called drug problem in the workplace. Even if accurate data were available, it would be difficult to determine whether a given level of use constitutes a significant problem. Second, we pointed out that even if drug use does, in fact, constitute a problem, there is little evidence to suggest that drug testing represents an effective solution. Harris offers no compelling evidence to reject those points.