2020 Georgia Code
Title 45 - Public Officers and Employees
Chapter 20 - Personnel Administration
Article 6 - Drug Testing for State Employment
§ 45-20-110. Definitions

As used in this article, the term:

1. "Applicant" means a candidate who is offered public employment with any agency, department, commission, bureau, board, college, university, institution, or authority of any branch of state government or who has commenced employment but has not submitted to an established test for illegal drugs.
2. "Established test" means the collection and testing of bodily fluids administered in a manner equivalent to that required by the Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs (HHS Regulations 53 Fed. Reg. 11979, et seq., as amended).
3. "Illegal drug" means marijuana/cannabinoids (THC), cocaine, amphetamines/methamphetamines, opiates, opioids, opioid analgesics, opioid derivatives, or phencyclidine (PCP). Such term shall not include any drug when used pursuant to a valid prescription or when used as otherwise authorized by state or federal law.
4. "Job" means a defined set of key responsibilities and performance standards encompassing one or more positions sufficiently similar in responsibilities and performance standards to be grouped together.
5. "Medical review officer" means a properly licensed physician who reviews and interprets results of drug testings and evaluates those results together with medical history or any other relevant biomedical information to confirm positive and negative results.
6. "Position" means a set of duties and responsibilities assigned or delegated by competent authority for performance by one person.

(Code 1981, §45-20-110, enacted by Ga. L. 1995, p. 667, § 3; Ga. L. 2012, p. 446, § 1-1/HB 642; Ga. L. 2018, p. 205, § 1/HB 701.)

The 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, in paragraph (3), inserted "opioids, opioid analgesics, opioid derivatives" in the first sentence, and substituted "Such term" for "The term 'illegal drug'" at the beginning of the second sentence.

- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1990, commas were deleted following "Regulations" and "53" in paragraph (2).

- For article on the 2018 amendment of this Code section, see 35 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 169 (2018). For note on 1995 amendments of this Code section and § 45-20-111, see 12 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 328 (1995).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Constitutionality.

- O.C.G.A. §§ 45-20-90 through45-20-111 is plainly unconstitutional because it violates applicants' rights to privacy under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. Georgia Ass'n of Educators v. Harris, 749 F. Supp. 1110 (N.D. Ga. 1990) (decided prior to 1995 repeal and reenactment of this article by Ga. L. 1995, p. 667, §§ 1 and 3).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

ALR.

- Supreme Court's views on mandatory testing for drugs or alcohol, 145 A.L.R. Fed. 335.