[1] (*)
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, March 1990, p 18. `Science and
the Citizen: Test Negative' by John Horgan
What underlies the broad acceptance of ... [drug testing] ...? One factor may be the alarming statistics cited by
testing advocates to demonstrate high costs of drug abuse. Examination of some
of these claims suggests that they do not always accurately reflect the
research on which they are based. ...
Last Year President George Bush declared that “drug abuse among
American workers costs businesses anywhere from $60 billion to $100 billion a
year in lost productivity, absenteeism, drug-related accidents, medical claims,
and theft.” ... All such claims are derived from a single study, one that “was
based upon assumptions that need additional validation,” according to an
assessment last year from NIDA ...
The study grew out of a survey ... by the Research Triangle Institute
(RTI) in 1982. The RTI group found that the average income of households with
at least one person who admitted to having *ever* used marijuana daily was 28
percent lower ... The RTI researchers defined the difference in income as “loss
due to marijuana use”; the total loss, when extrapolated to the entire
population, came to $26 billion. The researchers then added on the estimated
costs of drug-related crime to arrive at a total of $47 billion for “costs
to society of drug abuse”. This figure – “adjusted” to account for
inflation and population increase -- represents the basis of Bush's statement.
The RTI survey included questions on current drug use ... there was no
significant difference between the income of households with current users of
any illegal drug ... and the income of otherwise similar households. Does this
mean that current use of even hard drugs -- as opposed to perhaps a single
marijuana binge in the distant past -- does not lead to any “loss”?
Perhaps the study most publicized of late by testing proponents involves
employees of the U.S. Postal Service.
This study may be distorted by more subtle biases -- ... minority postal
workers tested positive at a much higher rate than non-minority workers and
that previous studies have shown minorities to have higher absenteeism.