New policy would broaden drug-testing methods

Under a proposed new policy, agencies could screen hair, saliva or sweat samples from federal employees for signs of drug use, instead of relying solely on urine tests.

Next week, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will propose the expansion of the types of drug tests that employees could face.

The draft policy by SAMHSA, a branch of the Health and Human Services Department, will be published in the April 13 Federal Register.

The proposed rules would expand the range of methods available to federal agencies, but would not change the number of employees screened, said Robert Stephenson, director of SAMHSA's division of workplace programs. Agencies could choose whether or not to use the alternative tests, he emphasized, and in doing so, could "consider their own needs based on their mission."

Once SAMHSA, in charge of designing policies to prevent and reduce substance abuse, publishes the draft policy, the public will have 90 days to suggest changes. SAMHSA strongly encourages interested parties to send in comments, Stephenson said. Agency officials then will take several more months to establish and implement final changes.

The suggested policy would allow agencies the flexibility to better tailor drug tests, said Laura Shelton, executive director of the Drug and Alcohol Industry Testing Association, an Alexandria, Va.-based advocacy group representing testing equipment manufacturers. Hair, saliva and sweat tests can pick up drug residue dating back months, while urine testing is more effective at detecting recent drug use.

Thanks to scientific advances, hair, saliva and sweat screenings can be just as reliable as urine tests, Stephenson said. Agencies could not use the alternative tests without first taking steps to assure the quality of the tests, he said. There are a variety of trustworthy alternatives to urine screening on the market, Shelton said.

But the alternative tests are not as well-established as urine screening, said Allen St. Pierre, a spokesman for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a group that advocates the legalization of marijuana. SAMHSA will need to be very careful about setting exacting quality standards for the hair, saliva, and sweat tests, he said. Otherwise, the government will open itself to a wave of lawsuits from employees failing the tests.

If SAMHSA fails to require rigorous enough quality checks on screening companies, the new policy will be "certain to stir up quite a controversy," said Graham Boyd, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Drug Policy Litigation Project. "If the government goes forward using a methodology that has not proven accurate, [this would] inevitably bring lawsuits," he said.

"They're going to need to use quality products," Shelton agreed. But she added that she believes SAMHSA will adequately address that issue in the draft policy.

Stephenson said the alternative tests will not be appropriate in all circumstances, but could help agencies produce more reliable results in certain instances. The draft policy will outline the situations in which agencies could use alternative methods, he said.

In addition, the proposed rule would require agencies to split all urine, hair, saliva and sweat samples collected, so that workers disputing test results could request an immediate second look. Most agencies rely on single samples, he said. The new policy would afford workers better protection against inaccurate test results, he said.

SAMHSA will publish a separate policy in the April 13 Federal Register announcing final revisions to the certification process for laboratories screening urine samples for federal agencies. The new standards will ensure the validity and uniform application of those testing procedures, Stephenson said, and will help prevent the use of products designed to adulterate urine samples.

Federal law allows all executive branch agencies to screen workers for drug use, but in practice, a relatively small percentage of the 1.6 million eligible federal employees undergo testing. Applicants must pass drug tests to qualify for roughly 400,000 government jobs.

Some jobs require random testing. Most of those employees screened on a regular basis hold security-related jobs. Agencies also have the right to test employees involved in workplace accidents or suspected of using drugs.