Meese Orders Drug Tests for 60,000 in Justice Dept.

The Justice Department announced plans Friday for a mandatory drug-testing program that eventually will cover all of the department’s 60,000 employees in “sensitive” positions, including the attorney general, his immediate staff and thousands of career attorneys.

Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III signed an administrative order setting the stage for random drug tests of all workers handling internal documents pertaining to criminal investigations, intelligence and other matters.

The first phase of the program will begin by the end of the year with testing of employees at the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Naturalization Service and Bureau of Prisons, said Assistant Atty. Gen. Richard Willard. The heads of those agencies will determine the frequency of the tests and who is required to take them.

Other Tests in March

The department’s remaining offices will begin tests in early March of next year, Willard said.

Much of the program’s thrust is aimed at employees who are charged with enforcing anti-drug laws. “We feel that people enforcing those laws should adhere to them,” Willard said.

“For any of our employees to use illegal drugs is to compromise the department’s law enforcement mission,” Meese said in a statement. “We aim to set an example for law enforcement at all levels of government.”

At the same time, Willard left open the possibility that most, if not all, career attorneys handling civil or criminal litigation would be covered by the drug testing program because they handle internal case documents concerning law enforcement that could be defined as sensitive.

If an employee tests positive in an initial screening test and a follow-up confirmatory drug test, the Justice Department has the option of firing that person. Dismissal is mandatory for a second offense.

The Justice Department program will test for cocaine, marijuana, amphetamines, opiates and PCP, authorities said.