Legal and Legislative Trends in Drug Testing

Abstract

This article examines the issues of medical confidentiality and legal defensibility that drug testing raises in view of recent judicial and legislative trends. Random and routine drug testing has raised questions of wrongful discharge, unlawful search and seizure, and invasion of privacy. Recent court rulings have upheld routine drug and alcohol testing of employees without individualized suspicion if necessitated by public safety or security interests. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, employers may still implement policies, including drug testing, to ensure that the recovered or recovering individual is not currently using illegal drugs.