Weighing the scientific evidence for drug testing in the workplace as a safety intervention

The Centre for Addictions Research of BC and the BC Mental Health and Addictions Research Network present... Weighing the scientific evidence for drug testing in the workplace as a safety intervention Presenter: Dr. Scott Macdonald, Assistant Director of Research at the Centre for Addictions Research of BC, and Associate Professor at the University of Victoria (School of Health Information Science) Video conferencing available. Please call for details. About the lecture: Drug testing in the workplace has increased dramatically in North America over the past 20 years. In the United States, 95% of the top fortune 500 companies have drug-testing programs where urine samples of employees are analyzed to detect the presence of metabolites of psychoactive drugs. In Canada, our recent study found that about 10.3% of employers with 100 or more employees have drug-testing programs. The only legal justification for drug testing in Canada is for a "bona fide" condition of work. Most Canadian employers with drug-testing programs have justified them on the basis of improving job safety. Is workplace drug testing justifiable? In this presentation, Dr. Macdonald discusses his experiences as an expert witness in numerous court cases where drug testing was contested. Focusing on the scientific evidence of the relationship between drug testing and safety, he explains how: 1) studies with the best methodological designs are case-control studies based on urinalysis of crash-involved drivers, and yet these studies have not found a relationship between positive tests results and crashes 2) other studies utilize a variety of methodological approaches that can have potential biases that could contribute to likely erroneous conclusions. The most frequently cited empirical studies are reviewed in terms of their strengths and weaknesses from an epidemiological perspective. About the presenter: Dr. Scott Macdonald is the Assistant Director of research at the Centre for Addictions Research of BC, and an Associate Professor at the University of Victoria (School of Health Information Science). He has a BA in psychology from the University of Victoria, a MA in Criminology from the University of Toronto, and a PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Western Ontario. Scott has focused his career on research issues in the substance use and abuse field, with empirical studies in a variety of areas, such as the role of substance use in injuries, program evaluation and alcohol policy. He and has been an expert witness in several court hearings related to substance abuse in the workplace, and been a consultant with the International Labour Office, the World Health Organization and Transport Canada on drug-testing issues. The event is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the BC Mental Health and Addictions Research Network. For more information please contact: Centre for Addictions Research of BC, Communication and Resource Unit, University of Victoria, 909 - 510 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 3A8 Telephone: 604.408.7753, Fax: 604.408.7731 Email: [email protected], or visit www.silink.ca or www.carbc.ca