Drug Test Benefits

Recent increases in the use of illegal drugs and problems related to that use have raised a variety of public health and safety concerns. These concerns have led many to propose drug testing as one of the best ways to combat the proliferation of drug use. Although the focus is testing for drugs, it is worth noting that similar calls for increased testing has risen due to the spread of HIV and the threat it poses to those exposed to it. Clearly, these public health and safety concerns conflict with privacy claims of those being targeted for testing. Nevertheless, many view the public safety threat as serious enough to override completely any individual privacy interests. Indeed, public opinion polls indicate that there is widespread support for a variety of testing programs, even those that are random and mandatory. Although drug abuse should not be tolerated in the workplace, care must be taken to limit the extent to which drug testing intrudes on people=s privacy. The idea is to use the technology carefully, with adequate justification, and with enough safeguards and precautions to ensure that testing is done thoughtfully and responsibly. Both the government and private business argue that they have a significant interest in testing citizens and employees for a variety of reasons. First, they can fight the Adrug [email  protected] by weeding out users and stopping drug use. Second, they can ensure safety by revealing conditions that pose a serious threat to co-workers or the public. Third, they test employees so they can maintain a fully responsive and effective workforce. Fourth, they can identify those who will be unable to work in the future. Fifth, it will help reduce the cost of employee health care plans. Finally, drug testing will help maintain public confidence in the integrity and trustworthiness of their operations. Many insurance agencies argue that testing is necessary because it fundamentally causes the healthier employees to pay higher premiums to cover the costs of the coverage for those who are at greater risk levels. All of these arguments provide strong reasons to consider drug testing. In some industries, such as health care and transportation, even casual drug or alcohol use can result in not only increased costs, but also in lawsuits and loss of life. Even if the employee is not chemically dependent, a spouse or family member using drugs or alcohol can mean missed work, extensive personal phone calls and increased dependent medical benefits. Supreme court justice Antonin Scalia found drug testing to be an invasion of privacy and a practice of A needless indignity. @ He states that if a blood test is used, it involves puncturing the skin. If a urinalysis is utilized, the sample must sometimes be gained under direct observation to guard against drug-free substitutions and falsification of results. He feels that there are more effective methods of identifying drug users. For example, a daily observation of moods, behavior, and productivity, can detect drug use and be dealt with immediately. Many employees feel that implementing a drug testing program will prove to the lack of trust between the employer and employee. They feel that this will cause high turnover rates from year to year. It will also lower employee morale and effectiveness while on the job. These problems could be avoided by just utilizing the observance plan mention earlier. Opponents of drug testing also focuses on the limitations of the testing procedures, arguing that the tests are highly inaccurate. One worry is the sensitivity of the tests. Many types of tests procedure inaccurate, innocent parties will be harmed because most tests produce a large number of false positive results, indicating that there has been drug use when there has actually been none. Such false positive results can rise from the use of medications, passive inhalation of marijuana smoke, or the technology employed for many drug tests. Drug testing opposers cite the human error of lab personnel that further implicates the accuracy of results The first two cases on drug testing to reach the Supreme Court were argued in 1988. From the decisions issued the following year, it is clear that the court held that urine tests are a significant intrusion into a fundamentally private domain. Since then, every court that has addressed the issue has found that urinalysis and blood tests intrude on privacy as a search and seizure forbidden under the fourth amendment. Courts have mainly focused on the privacy invasion involved, first, in the process of urination and the manner in which the specimen is obtained, and second, in the individuals interest and safeguarding the confidentiality of the information contained in the sample. While drug tests might also violate the fifth amendment protection of due process and constitutional privacy interests, courts have taken the privacy claims of the fourth amendment to be the most forceful constitutional threat. Some surveys show employees strongly support drug testing because it promises greater safety and harmony at work. However, scores of civil suits in the early and mid 1980's challenged the procedure as an invasion of privacy. The courts have upheld most testing programs, and fewer suits are now being filed. In a study conducted by the society for Human Resources Management, human resource professionals most consistently favored the use of drug and alcohol testing, soliciting criminal record checks, and monitoring visual display, terminal keystrokes and phone activity. While employers may deem these activities as essential to preserve workplace safety and productivity, many employees would argue that they violate their privacy, both on the job and at home. Employees may not be invaded by having to participate in drug tests with the urinalysis. Technology has advanced so that any impairment in a workers performance while on the job due to drugs or alcohol will be monitored on computers. It is called performance or impairment testing by its creators, and is a game-like device that can test judgement and motor coordination through the ability to manipulate a cursor on a VDT screen. The benefits reveal the cause of an employee impairment. Performance tests would offer more privacy to the worker and promote a less hostile environment People have objected mostly to random drug testing, which is mainly limited to government and private jobs that effect public safety, like those at nuclear power plants, airlines, railroads and trucking companies. More than 90 percent of the testing is of job applicants. But most of these same companies also test after accidents and when suspicions are aroused through erratic behavior. Fewer than 10 percent of the companies test randomly or at the time of annual physicals An employer has an extreme amount of influence on an individual to receive some type of treatment for their addiction. They are in the position to provide incentive for accepting treatment, as well as emotional support afterwards, because the job usually is of extreme importance to the addicted individual. The management should offer and accessible health insurance plan so that when the employee needs to receive the treatment that they can easily do so without having to involve several other people Once the addict has received the needed care, their job structure should be altered by management. They should be placed in a less stressful atmosphere. Their amount of work decreases for a certain amount of time, and they should not be placed on a demanding quota schedule that could trigger an emotional swing back toward the addiction The key to this success is having a good prevention program in place to detect problems at an early stage in their development. @If these problems can be detected early then outpatient treatment can be successful,@ says Maureen Whitmore of Occupational Health Services in Larkspur, California. Once a company has invested their time and money in rehabilitation of the employee, there are steps that must be followed to keep the employee from returning to their addiction. First, a peer support group should be provided where open discussion is encouraged in trying to cope with a new life and the new found pressure of work. Second, management should help their employees reintegrate back into the workplace. They will be confused and easily persuaded by stress that might have led to the problem in the beginning. Third, the company should hold AA meetings on-site and provide a crisis number to call in case of an emergency. Fourth, supervisors should be educated to watch for returning signs that the person is under stress. Fifth, management should involve family members and provide lifestyle education. Finally, stress reduced activities should be offered on-site, such as aerobics and fitness classes, and workshops on how to improve interpersonal skills. I feel that employee drug testing in some manner is essential to the performance and effectiveness of an employee in a company. Management needs the assurance that every employee is doing their job without any type of impairment from an outside source. However, I also feel that urinalysis testing is an invasion of privacy. As an employer, I will not be concerned with what types of drugs the employee is taking, but he is impairing the performance of the company. As I mentioned earlier, technology has advanced in such a manner that there will be no need for urinalysis tests. Performance or impairment testing programs will test the employee=s judgement and motor coordination through the ability to manipulate a cursor on a VDT screen. This will provide the employer with accurate information on the abilities of the employee to perform their job. It also keeps the employees addiction private and not for their employers to know. I feel that the increased health insurance coverage and the increased ease of access for employees will help them seek treatment for their addiction. However, there will need to be severe disciplinary actions for those who continually test positive. Once an employee has received treatment, the follow-up plans must be persuaded by management. This should help the employee to receive the needed attention for their problem, and help the company continue to have an effective employee. Drug testing has many benefits and set backs for both employers and employees. Certain types of drug testing are necessary in to days workplace for there to be an increased effectiveness of a company on their industry. However, employees still have privacy rights that cannot be infringed upon. A good and successful detection program and rehabilitation program are essential to the survival of the employee in the workplace. Eventually, the drug addiction will impair their abilities for life.

Journal Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Journal - Coursework Example Texting and calling ability with cell phones allows with me to connect with anyone I choose whether they are in the same town, or halfway across the world. The Internet allows me to communicate as well as share mass amounts of data such as documents with people. Social networking lets the world know what is going on with my personal world as well as keep up with everyone that I am â€Å"friends† with through the chat feature as well as news feed. Not only has technology affected me personally, but it has also had an impact on my parents and grandparents. Even though my parents and grandparents are always cautious of new technologies, after they are taught how to use them, they like the ability to constantly be in contact with the ones they love. Text messaging is especially convenient because whether I am at work or in school, I can always be in contact with them, especially if an emergency or something arises without creating a scene in class. Communication and Internet devel opment have had a enormous impact on the way information is disseminated both in the working world and in the education systems. People now have the ability to access and send files such as documents at light speed, which can in turn be read by computers and hand-held devices. It allows for collaboration with either companies or research partners.

Equality and Rights Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Equality and Rights - Assignment Example This leads us to respond to the second question regarding which one between rights and equality comes first. From the foregoing description of equality, human rights can be said to enshrine the very tenets of equality. In other words, recognition of equality comes first before declaration of human rights laws to embrace and protect the recognized equality (Vandenhole 52). From a global angle, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and many related intolerance that have confronted many nations can thus be said to have been due to lack of provision and recognition of the existing equal opportunity for growth (Vandenhole 78). However, the preservation of rights is important since by protecting human rights, human equality and other factors that relate to human relationships and coexistence are also protected constitutionally (Vandenhole 83). Based on the earlier argument, for this reason, when asked as to whether the UN declaration was aimed at protecting human rights or equality? One would be quick to concede the argument presented by Vandenhole (123) that the declaration’s objective was to protect the human right. This is because by protecting the human rights, the declaration would protect within its protective claws the equality of every individual under its umbrella. The declaration was thus intended to embrace the nation’s civil rights and subsequently see to it that disparate unequal treatment of individuals especially in criminal justice systems across the globe ceases to be (Vandenhole 176). However, regressing to the lifestyle led by the founding fathers of the declaration, an opposite of the declaration comes into a picture. The founders were far from achieving a complete equality neither did they give equal opportunity to people different from their own (Vandenhole

The buying and selling of sex between (apparently) consenting adults Essay

The buying and selling of sex between (apparently) consenting adults should be none of the criminal justice systems business. Discuss - Essay Example In other places such as Northern Ireland, which formerly had comparable laws, paying for sex was banned in January 2015 (Stockham, 2015, p.1). Conventionally, prostitution is not illegal in the United Kingdom, it is considered as a private contract conducted between two consenting adults. Nevertheless, the laws function to make offering sex in exchange for cash challenging and risky. All sexual activities involving running of brothels, street walking and soliciting, where more than one woman trades sex in building are regarded illegal (Prosecution, 2015, p.2). However, there are many sections of legislation that pursue to adjust and penalize an extensive selection of acts related to prostitution in the welfare of public health, social welfare and moral order. This essay focuses on the buying and selling of sex between consenting adults should be none of the criminal justice systems business. Soliciting and kerb-crawling in public or quasi-public places are apparently unlawful and there are numerous laws which permit for the trial of those who are seen to merit from the prostitution of others individuals, such as ‘pimps’, clients and brothel proprietors. Off street working is legitimate, though, where there is more than one person available in an apartment even though the subsequent individual is not trading sex that individual may be considered to be living off immoral incomes and that apartment defined as a brothel. The publicizing of sexual activities in public places is also forbidden (Prosecution, 2015, p.2). Although the present legislative framework is regularly designated as having been put down in the wake of the Wolfenden Committee’s in 1957, evaluation of prostitution and homosexual felonies, previous statutes still remain in place and endure to form the legislative descriptions of prostitution. Furthermore, the array of unlawful legislation concerning to sex activities has been supplemented to subsequently and,

Connections in Middle Eastern Music and Religion Research Paper

Connections in Middle Eastern Music and Religion - Research Paper Example The use of music in the Jewish theory made profound success as a means of attracting youths into the synagogues. This led to creation of folk, jazz and rock forms of music. Jewish women participated in music either as composers or cantors and brought new dimension on ancient view points of the Jewish religion. The role of sacred music led to greater flowering of the music theory, which had been initially thought to be immoral .Middle eastern Jewish folks majorly used the maqam system, which was Arabic classical music (Randel, 550). (Isaacson, 185) notes that when individuals think about Jewish music, what comes into their minds are hymns, holiday songs, and prayer settings that are associated with synagogues. Modern cantors acquire their nusach in sacred music schools from 19th and 20th century cantor educators such as Katchko and Baer. Word painting was carried out by cantor, who learned different modulates, one after another. Two cantors chanting similar prayers using the same nusa ch created contrasting emotional responses in formation of the song. They also employed the use of Scarbova or Misinai, that meant anonymous; unattributed folk melodies. These melodies were well versed by the members of the congregation and in fact believed to descend from Moses in Mount Sinai. Scarbova Is Latin for Sacred. Songs were the essence of tradition and culture and comfort of hearing them had strong ties to the Jewish religion. Traditionally Yiddish music was played by use of string instruments.

Environmental sustainability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Environmental sustainability - Essay Example With a surplus of paper in the market of China, excess paper in Britain became very problematic (The Mail on Sunday 2009, 1). As stated by the representative of the Environment Agency: â€Å"We are expecting the market to bounce back in the next month or so. We want people to hold their nerve—we don’t have the space in landfill if people stop recycling. We can’t lose sight of that in the face of this temporary blip in the market† (The Mail on Sunday 2009, 1). Activists all over Britain have expressed anxiety over the tons of glut recycling mounting up on a national scale. This paper hence discusses the methods of recycling paper. The next section is a thorough review of literature about the increasing necessity and existing methods of recycling paper. The third section is a critical evaluation of the methods of recycling paper. The fourth section presents the possible future developments in paper recycling in the UK. And the last section wraps up the entir e discussion. Literature Review Paper recycling has become ever more imperative over the recent decades, especially for developed countries like the U.S. and the UK. The motivators for this change involve governmental and ecological factors. In paper production, the method of drying brings about structural alterations in the paper filaments, which lessens the consequent bonding capacity of the filaments and avoids rehydration (Limbachiya, Newlands & Dhir 2001). Enhanced purifying, while reviving the capacity to bond, has a negative impact on the looseness and capacity of the soft tissue to dry (Limbachiya et al. 2001). The review of literature below illustrates these concerns with paper recycling methods. An extensive review of literature on the features and functions of paper mill sediment was amassed. This is a vital issue because management of waste is important to paper mills. This issue is particularly important for paper mills where in derivative fibre is applied (McKinney 199 4). Methods of disposal, treatment, segregation, and contents of sediments have to be dealt with. A number of studies examined the contents of sediments stemming from the process of paper production and pulp and explored the similarities and differences between virgin filament and derivative filament methods (Limbachiya et al. 2001). The deposit from independent methods was described, suggesting the content of the different waste flows in the paper mill. Other methods of disposal were also reviewed in accordance with these features. The assumption of several studies was that the ultimate sediment use may be derived from its composition, leading to more productive application of the deposit. An analysis of the existing technology for fractionation of filament is also conducted by several studies (McKinney 1994). Available tools for processing of filament fractionation is explored alongside the qualities of collected paper that are regarded fit for fractionation. Due to the fact that filament fractions usually have uniquely different characteristics, they respond distinctly to the different processes like purifying or blanching (Rader 1995). Other studies discuss the features of the fractions, fractionation design, other

Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 19

Human Resource Management - Essay Example Majority of these stores are found in America, and the number is 12,218 stores. China is also a lucrative market for Starbucks, and the company has opened 1,330 stores. Starbucks offers products such as cold or hot beverage, coffee, pastries, snacks, etc (Pahl, 2008). This means that the company has diversified, and this is through the many services it offers. Initially, the main reason for the formation of Starbucks was to sale the coffee drink (Simon, 2009). This diversification strategy of Starbucks is also seen when the company decided to offer wines, beer and appetizers. The target markets of these products are people who want to relax in the evenings. Pahl (2008) explains that some of the products of Starbucks are found within a particular location, and this is mainly because it offers some services and products at specific seasons. These products have also been designed, to serve a specific market. Starbucks does not only sale its coffee, in its stores, but it also sales them at various retailing organizations, and grocery stores (Pahl, 2008). Through this strategy, it is the intention of Starbucks to reach a large market base. Organizational culture is generally the unique combination of values, norms, morals, beliefs, and techniques or ways of behavior that characterizes the way individuals or large groups of individuals combine to have things done in an organization (Gurski, 2013). Schultz & Gordon (2011) explains that organizational culture is the norms and activities that people are able to engage with, within the organization. Through this definition, we are able to know that organizational culture is the internal environment of an organization, which regulates then manner which people within the organization are able to interact with one another, and other stakeholders of then organization (Michelli, 2007). Culture is very important in every company, for example