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HB 701 - Public Officers and Employees Michael C Georgia State University Law Review Volume 35 Article 10 Issue 1 Fall 2018 12-1-2018 HB 701 - Public Officers and Employees Michael C. Freeman Jr. Georgia State University College of Law, [email protected] Monica Laredo Ruiz Georgia State University College of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/gsulr Part of the Administrative Law Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, Labor and Employment Law Commons, Legislation Commons, and the State and Local Government Law Commons Recommended Citation Michael C. Freeman Jr. & Monica Laredo Ruiz, HB 701 - Public Officers and Employees, 35 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. (2018). Available at: https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/gsulr/vol35/iss1/10 This Peach Sheet is brought to you for free and open access by the Publications at Reading Room. It has been accepted for inclusion in Georgia State University Law Review by an authorized editor of Reading Room. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Freeman and Laredo Ruiz: HB 701 - Public Officers and Employees PUBLIC OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES Personnel Administration: Amend Article 110 of Chapter 20 of Title 45, Relating to Definitions for Drug Testing for State Employment, so as to Allow for Testing for all Forms of Opioids; To Provide for Related Matters; To Repeal Conflicting Laws; And for Other Purposes. CODE SECTIONS: O.C.G.A. § 45-20-110 (amended) BILL NUMBER: HB 701 ACT NUMBER: 329 GEORGIA LAWS: 2018 Ga. Laws 205 SUMMARY: The Act amends Georgia’s statute to give state employers the authority to drug test certain applicants to various public positions. The Act adds opioids, opioid analgesics, and opioid derivatives to the list of drugs for which state employers may screen. EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2018 History “The opioid crisis is an emergency, and I’m saying officially right now, it is an emergency,”1 declared President Donald Trump (R) in August 2017, a few months before he designated the opioid crisis a public health emergency.2 Declaring the opioid crisis a national emergency instead of a public health emergency allows states to access special federal funds, and lets the federal government waive provisions of various federal health care laws.3 The Trump 1. Jeff Overley, Trump to Declare Opioid Crisis a National Emergency, LAW360 (Orlando Lorenzo ed., Aug. 10, 2017, 7:53 PM), https://www.law360.com/articles/953347/trump-to-declare-opioid-crisis- a-national-emergency [https://perma.cc/DCW5-S7Q6]. 2. Id.; Greg Allen & Amita Kelly, Trump Administration Declares Opioid Crisis a Public Health Emergency, NPR (Oct. 26, 2017, 5:02 AM), https://www.npr.org/2017/10/26/560083795/ president- trump-may-declare-opioid-epidemic-national-emergency [https://perma.cc/YP69-8QEP]. 3. Overley, supra note 1. 169 Published by Reading Room, 2018 1 Georgia State University Law Review, Vol. 35, Iss. 1 [2018], Art. 10 170 GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 35:1 administration’s action was just one of many steps taken nationally to combat the United States’ opioid epidemic.4 Although the “War on Drugs” has been fuming for over four decades,5 drug abuse and the cost of combating it continue to rise.6 In recent years, opioids have taken center stage in the war on drugs, with the fallout from opioid use worsening every year.7 In 2015, approximately 33,000 Americans died as a result of opioid abuse.8 In March 2018, deaths due to opioids increased to 115 deaths per day, nearly 42,000 annually.9 In response to this worsening epidemic, lawmakers are looking for solutions at both the national and state levels.10 Opioids Generally Before legislators can begin drafting laws, they must first understand what they are trying to legislate. The term “opioid” is an umbrella term for chemicals—both natural and synthetic—that “reduce the intensity of pain signals and feelings of pain” by “interact[ing] with opioid receptors on nerve cells in the body and brain.”11 The term opioid includes both legal and illegal drugs, 4. See, e.g., Exec. Order No. 13,784, 3 C.F.R., 2017 Comp., p. 319 (2017) (establishing commission to study the opioid crisis, analyze the efficiency of the federal government’s response to it, and guide further federal efforts). 5. See A Brief History of the Drug War, DRUG POLICY ALL. http://www.drugpolicy.org/issues/brief-history-drug-war (last visited Oct. 31, 2018) [https://perma.cc/3Z4R-FKCB]. 6. See Economics of Drug Policy and the Drug War, DRUG WAR FACTS http://drugwarfacts.org/chapter/economics (last visited Oct. 31, 2018) [https://perma.cc/V2KL-XGWQ]. In 2013, the federal drug control budget was $23.8 billion. Id. In 2018, that number increased to $27.57 billion. Id. 7. Understanding the Epidemic, CTRS. FOR DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION, https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/ (last updated Aug. 30, 2017) [https://perma.cc/U6SA- DNYY]. 8. Nat’l Inst. on Drug Abuse, Opioid Overdose Crisis, NAT’L INST. HEALTH, https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis#one (last updated Mar. 2018) [https://perma.cc/DTF2-W2YX]. 9. See id. 10. See Joe Reedy, Florida Legislature Passes Bill to Combat Opioid Epidemic, ASSOCIATED PRESS (Mar. 10, 2018, 2:08 AM), https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/florida/articles/2018-03- 09/florida-legislature-passes-bill-to-combat-opioid-epidemic [https://perma.cc/Z3EL-F245]. 11. Commonly Used Terms, CTRS. FOR DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION, https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/opioids/terms.html (last updated Aug. 28, 2017) [https://perma.cc/8SK2-DVLK]. https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/gsulr/vol35/iss1/10 2 Freeman and Laredo Ruiz: HB 701 - Public Officers and Employees 2018] LEGISLATIVE REVIEW 171 ranging from Schedule I narcotics like heroin12 to prescription pain medications like oxycodone and morphine.13 Although legal and relatively safe when taken as medically recommended, prescription opioids are frequently abused because dependence on them develops quickly, especially when taken for several weeks.14 Athletes, for instance, are particularly at risk of abusing prescription opioids.15 Doctors prescribe pain medication to athletes suffering from injuries, and then athletes develop a dependence on the drug as they injure and reinjure themselves over their career.16 Americans consume more opioids than any other country in the world with 11.5 million Americans misusing opioids in 2016.17 The current opioid crisis has roots that trace back to overprescribing opioids in the 1990s.18 Starting in 2010, overdose deaths from heroin began rising.19 The most recent chapter in the opioid epidemic began in 2013 when synthetic opioids—illegally-produced fentanyl in particular—further increased the death toll.20 As a result of these three waves, the number of deaths from opioid overdoses in 2016 was five times higher than it was in 1999, making drug overdoses the number one cause of death in the United States.21 12. 21 U.S.C.S. § 812 (LEXIS through Pub. L. No. 115-185). 13. Commonly Used Terms, supra note 11. 14. GA. DEP’T LAW, General Information and Dangers, DOSE OF REALITY GA., https://doseofrealityga.org/get-the-facts/dangers/ (last visited Jul. 1, 2018) [https://perma.cc/SP3V- 4QES]. 15. Linda B. Cottler et al., Injury, Pain, and Prescription Opioid Use Among Former National Football League (NFL) Players, 116 DRUG & ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE 188, 188 (2011) (“Athletes with injury-related pain, especially National Football League (NFL) players, are at increased risk for opioid use and misuse which may result in medical, psychiatric and social problems.”). In 2010, researchers conducted a phone survey of 644 retired NFL players. Id. Of those contacted, 52% used opioids during their career, 71% of those who used admitted to also misusing opioids, and 15% of misusers still continue to misuse opioids. Id. 16. See id. Of the former NFL players who admitted to misusing opioids during their career, 15% still continue to misuse opioids. Id. 17. GA. DEP’T LAW, supra note 14. 18. Understanding the Epidemic, supra note 7. 19. Id. 20. Id. 21. Id.; GA. DEP’T LAW, supra note 14 (“Sustaining this death toll is the equivalent of experiencing an event like September 11, 2001 every three weeks.”). Indeed, in 2016, opioid overdose deaths surpassed deaths from gun homicides and car crashes combined. Understanding the Epidemic, supra note 7. Published by Reading Room, 2018 3 Georgia State University Law Review, Vol. 35, Iss. 1 [2018], Art. 10 172 GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 35:1 In addition to the impact on the population, the opioid crisis has a devastating economic impact.22 The White House’s Council of Economic Advisors estimated that the opioid crisis’s economic cost in 2015 was $504 billon, nearly 3% of that year’s GDP.23 Among the states most affected by the crisis,24 opioid dependency cost Ohio upwards of $8.8 billion in 2015, before the crisis’s peak in 2016.25 The opioid crisis cost West Virginia, another heavily impacted state, $8.72 billion in 2016.26 Further, the number of opioid-related deaths in West Virginia has doubled over the past decade and quadrupled over the past sixteen years.27 Part of that economic impact stems from the use of opioids and other drugs in a workplace setting, which hampers productivity and increases injuries and absenteeism.28 The Department of Transportation (DOT) federally mandates drug testing regulations for all DOT agencies, including employees in the aviation, trucking, mass transit, railroad, and pipeline industries.29 Alcohol and drug testing requirements apply to employees and applicants in these industries who perform (or will perform) “safety-sensitive functions”—the impairment of whom would likely pose a significant safety risk.30 22.
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