Workplace drug testing has become a big issue for many companies in the business world. There are mMore than fifty percent of companies in the United States administer drug testing to their employees including job applicants and current employees. Many states implement drug-free-place laws and these laws are adopted by both public and private employers. The public sectors perform drug testing in complying with the guidelines and government policies; however, most private companies in the U.S are not legally obligated to test potential or current employees for drug use based on their own policies.

So, why its ist important for companies to test their employees for drug use? Advocates to workplace drug testing justify it for many reasons. The first justification is to perform drug testing to comply with the Federal law. According to the Drug-free-workplace Act of 1988, companies with fFederal contracts of more than $25,000 are mandated to have policies to stop drug use and abuse (Steiner, 2009). In response to the law, states and cities passed policies to their business sectors to test their employees for drug and alcohol use. The second reason ofor drug testing is to have beneficial results which include maintaining worker productivity, containing costs, declining illegal drug use, and helping society. It is evident that using of some certain substances like marijuana and alcohol reduces productivity because the users tend to have higher absenteeism and be less productive due to physical tiredness and lack of concentration. By complying with the drug test policy, employees will be more aware of drug use and be able to hopefully avoid it thain order to helps their companies maintain and increase productivity.

In addition, drug use and abuse cost America about $82 billion due to lost productivity, higher insurance premiums, property damage, administrative cost, and so on. For this reason, companies with a drug test policy will help reduce a significant number of costs caused by substance use and abuse at the workplace. In a similar way, drug testing also has a positive contribution to society by protecting the employees and customers. Workers on drugs tend to present a danger to themselves, other workers, and members of the public; therefore, drug testing can help protect the safety and health of others who could be jeopardized by drug abusers in the workplace. In my opinion, workplace drug testing can have a positive impact to each individual and the society as a whole if it is carried oingut inby complying with the law.