Morbidity Abstract EMPLOYMENT FOLLOW-UP AFTER INITIAL DRUG SCREENING

A group of 4964 applicants for employment in the U.S. Postal service in Boston provided a voluntary urine specimen for the purpose of screening for marijuana, cocaine and other nontherapeutic drugs during the period from September 24, 1986 to January 6,1989. This was a blind study: results of the drug screening were not known to the applicants, the hiring or medical personnel, nor to Postal Service management during the entire screening and follow-up period, except for seven applicants testing positive for opiates, who were excluded and evaluated for employment outside the study. Also excluded from the study were 42 applicants with a prior history of nonalcoholic substance abuse, 56 with incomplete employment records, 60 Hispanics and 2 Native Americans (numbers too small to evaluate by race). Each applicant was requested to provide a urine sample in a private bathroom and was informed that drug screening would be part of the urine examination. Only one person refused to provide the specimen and did not complete his application. Of the 4797 study applicants who were offered a job, 2260 did not accept, but 2537 who accepted their offers prior to January 28, 1989 constitute the cohort of employees in this study. Mean age of the cohort was 30.3 years, and 34.1% were female. The distribution of drug test results and other baseline characteristics of the cohort and the group who did not accept employment are shown in Table A. Accuracy of the drug testing was carefully monitored and checked; for details the artide should be consulted.