Question

What are the possible ethical consequences of failing to report the positive urine drug screen?

Answer 1

If the test is for an employment offer, you probably won't be hired. When the test is conducted randomly for a job you already have, you could be fired. Drug tests are so important because when you're high on the job you create risky work conditions. As such, companies usually won't take a drug fail lightly.. If a positive analytical result is confirmed then, before the results are passed to management or to the occupational medical department, they are scrutinised by a "medical review officer" who determines whether or not the analytical results indicate drug abuse. Throughout the process a meticulous audit trail has to be maintained to ensure that the results obtained can be attributed with total confidence to the urine sample supplied by the particular employee and that there is no possibility of interference with the urine sample during the pre-analytical or analytical stages of the process. If the medical review officer's opinion is that the analytical results do indicate drug abuse, then disciplinary action usually resulting in the termination of employment may result, although some employers do have in place carefully written substance abuse policies. In such cases the employee providing a sample yielding a positive result may be offered counselling, with dismissal only following if attempts at rehabilitation fail