The 1991 NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD SURVEY ON DRUG ABUSE (NHSDA) indicated that roughly ten million employed Americans were "current users" of illegal drugs. Drug use by employees and workers has become an important issue for American business. In the 1990s, employers of all types (large and small businesses, nonprofit organizations, government) are attempting to contain the negative impact of illegal drug use on job performance, PRODUCTIVITY, safety, and health (Walsh & Gust, 1989).

Drug use "in the workplace" is perhaps a misnomer in that today's employer policies focus on drug use by the "worker," whether that use is at the work site or off the job. In the United States, drug abuse in the workplace was recognized as a serious problem in the early 1980s, and in the next decade a slow but progressive response by both labor and management yielded model...