Drug testing has become standard operating procedure in today’s competitive job market.  With today’s high unemployment and underemployment numbers, companies have a vast field of candidates to choose from.  Between two candidates of equal qualifications where one tests positive for drugs and the other passes the drug test, which would you choose?  It is a no brainer.  A person who tests positive for substances like THC or worse won’t even be considered for the position. “But I have a medical marijuana card!” some will protest.  Sorry, Cheech, That doesn’t give you a free pass to smoke pot on the job.  No company will want to take the risk of being sued because you were high and someone got hurt on the job.

Since 1987 drug testing in the workplace has increase by almost three hundred percent.  Even though it may seem unfair for companies to conduct random drug tests, employees must be on guard for the random test.  If one employee screws up on the job and is tested and comes up positive then it is likely that the company will test some more if not all employees just to make it seem like they are treating everyone the same way.  Being treated equally does not always mean being treated fairly.  Human error in the lab testing or false positives for legal substances that have similar characteristics to illegal substances have resulted in suspensions and even wrongful termination.

This is not to say that if you test positive on a random drug test at work that you are working impaired.  If you smoked marijuana four weeks prior to your random drug test you may still test positive for THC while a coworker who drank a fifth of whiskey the day before may be clean as a whistle for their drug test.