It's hard to talk about NBC's successful drug-testing program without cracking a joke or two. But the success of this program is no joking matter. Born in 1989 as a result of a Presidential order to institute drug testing in the federal employment system, the operation has grown from five full-time employees to 20, and in addition to Interior, it now serves approximately 90 other federal offices. These include the White House, the Department of Defense, the Secret Service, and others. Recently, the program has added the Navy, Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and the U. S. Marshal's Service.

Jokes aside, it takes a very high level of care and professionalism to provide credible and unassailable testing services to some of the most sensitive areas of the Federal government. To do proper drug testing, samples must be tracked fastidiously; fraud must be avoided, and false positive results must be eliminated as much as possible.

Drug testing also has elements of a traveling show. What do Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Denali National Park have in common, besides mountains? Their employees are drug tested by NBC. This must be done on-site.

Drug testing czar Richard Hipkins is serious when he explains the program's growth. "Our success has been in large part due to the hard work of the drug program staff employees," he explains. "People like Alice Currie, Russell Ching; Louise Dinkins, Gary Dixon, Rob Ekstrom, Bonita Gamble-Webb, Kim Green, Shannon Hill, Ettyce James, Faye Jensen, Milton Johnson, Sandra McAdams, Brinkley McCann, Kevin Morgan, Marie Faitague, and Valerie Wright. [He insisted on naming them all.] We look forward to continuing to earn support from each and every customer."

As unromantic as it sounds, NBC's drug testing program is one of its most successful services. This growing branch stands as an example of the NBC mission: to provide quality service and innovative solutions to meet customer business needs. As the largest provider of drug testing services in government today, they appear to be doing just that.

For More Information:
Richard Hipkins
Richard_E_Hipkins@nbc.gov
202-208-5638