Drug and Alcohol Issues

The implementation and enforcement of drug and alcohol-related policies requires careful balancing of the employer’s interest in providing a safe workplace with the legal rights of employees and applicants. Employers also face novel issues in the area of substance abuse policies as more and more jurisdictions legalize marijuana or prohibit inquiring into applicants’ criminal history, including any history of substance abuse.

Do your drug and alcohol policies reflect changing state and federal laws?

We work with clients to establish effective drug and alcohol workplace and testing policies and can audit any existing policies to ensure federal, state and local compliance. This process includes examining agreements with third-party testing services and developing solutions for specific types of testing such as reasonable-suspicion, post-accident testing, and random, or employee grievances relating to testing. We also assist employers in industries with safety sensitive positions, such as healthcare and transportation, and help to implement substance abuse policies that address the unique safety concerns of these industries. The firm has experience drafting complex drug and alcohol testing policies for multi-state employers addressing testing of applicants and employees.