Despite the risks, security managers often grapple with how to protect their businesses from the risk of drug use at work. To some, drug testing and its commonly used methods, like urine or hair testing, are considered too invasive and cost prohibitive to be practical.
Because of these factors, drug detection companies have been developing a new form of drug testing that allows traces of illegal drugs to be detected on surfaces, such as phones, furniture and even employee uniforms. Such so-called “surface testing” methods take employees out of the equation by allowing security managers to test only company-owned surfaces and evaluate their overall drug risk. Rather than immediately pinpointing individual employees, surface tests are generally designed to give a clear picture of the overall drug use and drug trafficking exposures in a facility by identifying the intensity, type and location of illegal drug activity.
“Surface testing allowed us to easily determine whether we even had an illegal drug problem,” said the vice president of loss prevention for one major furniture retailer. “We were surprised at how widespread the drug contamination was throughout our facilities and are now using that information to deter drug use through a pre-employment and spot-testing program.”