This New York Times article discusses an important employment issue that may become more prevelant: whether and how employers may test and discipline employees for using legal prescription drugs. As the article relates, drug testing like this is regulated in part by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
In North Carolina, two other state statutes can come into play. First is the Controlled Substance Examination Regulation, N.C. Gen. Stat. 95-230 et seq., which specifies some of the required procedures for drug testing.
Second is the statute protecting against workplace discrimination against persons for the lawful use of lawful products, N.C. Gen. Stat. 95-28.2. Under the law, an employer generally may not discriminate based on an employee’s “lawful use of lawful products if the activity occurs off the premises of the employer during nonworking hours and does not adversely affect the employee’s job performance or the person’s ability to properly fulfill the responsibilities of the position in question or the safety of other employees.”
Author Bio
Valerie Johnson
Founder
Valerie Johnson is a North Carolina personal injury and workers’ compensation attorney dedicated to helping injured and working people across the state. A board-certified specialist since 2000, she is the Immediate Past President of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice and author of North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Law: A Practical Guide to Success at Every Stage of a Claim.
