Federal Manager's Daily Report

Changes under consideration in the government’s drug testing

policy could once again roil an issue that once was one of

the major points of dispute in the federal workplace but

that has since settled into an uneasy kind of truce between

labor and management. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health

Services Administration is considering a new policy that

would allow management at its discretion to replace urine

testing with other types of testing, including testing of

hair, saliva and sweat.

One reason cited for introducing different types of testing

is that those tests can detect use of illegal substances

going back weeks or even months, whereas urine testing

typically is most valuable only going back several days.

Most tests are performed as part of applicant screening,

on a routine basis or because of suspected drug use.

The government’s current drug testing policy was introduced

during the Reagan administration and at that time was the

subject of great controversy over the privacy implications,

the accuracy of the tests, the procedures used to select

employees to be tested, safeguards over the chain of

custody of the samples and other issues. The policy

became the subject of numerous court cases, congressional

investigations and much bad blood between management and

line employees. Broadening the types of tests available to

management could raise many of the same issues.