While the government may have a heavy hand in law making regarding drug testing policies, the companies themselves are on their own when creating their policies. Because an automotive company (that will remain unnamed) changed their drug testing policies quite a few employees were suddenly let go because the prescription medications that they had prescriptions and doctor approvals for were suddenly deemed unsafe. Originally the company had only been testing for illegal narcotics, but after the change in policy they were legally allowed to test a person’s sample for prescription medications. The company was being sued by a group of now former employees for invasion of privacy and wrongful termination. Unfortunately for them while the District court level agreed with their plight, the higher level that the company appealed to did revoke the original decision, citing that since the company had outlined their policy and there were no grandfather clauses that needed to take into account the employee’s prior work that the company was not violating the employees rights.

What this means sadly is that so long as the company doing the testing has a written and legal document that states clearly what their policies are, that despite the fact that doctors informed them that the prescription drug use was all within legal limits and did not harbor the workers abilities to do their jobs safely, that the company can do whatever they want. Keep this in mind when looking for work, read up on any company you’re going to be interviewing with. And make sure to read any and all policies they have concerning their testing procedures.