Employers are entitled under the law to hold all employees to the same standards of conduct and performance, including employees who are engaging in illegal drug use or who are actively alcoholic.

   The Americans With Disabilities Act (AWDA) does not require employers to give any special concessions to employees whose poor job performance, absenteeism, negligence and other sub-standard behaviors are the result of their substance abuse, according to a recent ruling handed down by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. The court upheld the firing of an infectious disease specialist from his position with the state department of health over on-going problems stemming from unresolved addiction to crack cocaine.

   The fired employee had completed a thirty-day inpatient drug rehab program. He claimed on that basis he was protected from job bias for his addiction, as the AWDA protects successfully rehabilitated substance abusers by defining them as disabled individuals under the law who cannot be discriminated against.

   After graduating from an inpatient treatment program, however, this employee resumed active crack cocaine abuse and returned to his old habits of poor job performance. He had nominally completed a drug rehab program, but as a relapsed active drug abuser he was not considered a qualified individual with a disability and had no right to put forth a claim of disability discrimination over his termination.