Blaine County Businesses High On Drug Testing, But Not Enforcers
You have to prove you’re clean and sober if you want to run a chairlift or drive a beer truck in Blaine County, but not if you want to be a police officer or prosecutor.
Drug testing in the workplace is both a trend and a topic of debate these days. Companies nationwide are turning to urine tests to keep their workplaces drug-free, and the issue drew intense attention recently after a loaf of marijuana-laced banana bread sent a pair of disc jockeys on an unintentional high.
KSKI radio, which announced a drug testing policy after the banana bread incident, joins a number of local employers who test. But many other local employers don’t.
“I’m glad we have a drug testing policy,” Sun Valley Co. spokesman Jack Sibbach said. “I think our policy is good for the safety of our guests and of our employees.”
Sun Valley Co. is the valley’s largest employer, with more than 1,000 workers during peak season. Sibbach said the benefits of testing are worth the effort, even given the company’s somewhat transient work force.
Ski patrol workers are tested, as are workers in mechanical jobs, such as chairlift operators and people using heavy equipment.
As required by federal law, all companies that hire commercial drivers must test. Southern Idaho Distributing, the local Budweiser distributor, has a companywide policy, owner Tony Watkins said. Watkins said the company has fired people for failing drug tests, and he’s confident that testing has made for safer workplace.
But not everyone in Blaine County feels the need to test. Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling is one. “No, there’s no need,” Femling said. “We just don’t do it.”
Femling said he’s confident none of his three-dozen deputies use illegal drugs, although one deputy was investigated last year by the state attorney general’s office for allegedly responding to a shooting under the influence of alcohol.
Blaine County Prosecutor Doug Werth said he’s confident his employees don’t use illegal drugs. “The policy of my office is that employees in my office are not to be consuming illegal drugs,” Werth said. “Period. You have a responsibility in law enforcement. We enforce the drug laws, and it would be wrong for anyone in my office not to follow those laws.”
Sun Valley Police Chief Cam Daggett implemented a drug testing policy last year on his own. He said he tests all new hires. “It was my decision,” Daggett said.
But Daggett’s policy doesn’t go as far as some. The Twin Falls Police Department not only tests new hires; it also tests its employees randomly, and when there’s cause.
Mark Mary, human resources director at Power Engineers, said his company has a tiered drug testing system. Not everyone is tested. No one has been terminated in the past three years, Mary said.
Opponents of drug testing say it’s an invasion of privacy, and results often are inaccurate. Jack Van Valkenburg, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho, said the drug screens used by most companies are not always reliable.
“We oppose drug testing generally when it’s not related to suspected illegal activity,” Van Falkenburg said. “We think it’s both unfair and inaccurate. Especially when it’s to prove their innocence.”
False-positive results can end a person’s job and land them in court. Conversely, the guilty can sometimes escape detection. When tests are performed at Wood River Medical Center, it’s possible to substitute someone else’s urine sample, since men being tested aren’t escorted into the bathrooms by the female staff members, laboratory technician Phyllis Shaffer said.
Also, drugs such as cocaine, speed, and alcohol can be out of a person’s system in 18 hours - much more quickly than marijuana, which can show up for 30 days. But Sibbach said the value of testing outweighs the inconsistencies.
“Sun Valley and its employees are entitled to a drug-free workplace,” Sibbach said. “The purpose of this policy is to establish and enhance a drug-free work place, productivity, safety, and general employee health and satisfaction.”