Are You Required to Notify All Current or Future Employers if You’ve Been in Drug Rehab?

Question by chibigenesis: Are you required to notify all current or future employers if you’ve been in drug rehab?
If you’ve been in a drug rehabilitation program, and successfully completed it, do you have to notify any potential employers? Do you have to notify a current employer if you’re going into a rehab program?

I assume the laws are differen in every state, but specifically in Illinois or california? If anyone knows a website that would tell me all this i’d really appreciate it.

Best answer:

Answer by James
Only if they ask on the application.

Answer by jellybeanchick
Drug rehab is something you shouldn’t bring up unless you are required to say whether or not you have been. In my limited employment experience in CA, most jobs do not specifically ask about rehab or past drug use. They will do a background check to see if you have any previous convictions, and a drug test to see if you are currently on drugs. Some jobs with intense background checks (like police or police dispatchers) will ask about your past drug use in detail.

I believe you do have to notify a current employer if you go into drug rehab, but you probably need to give no more information than that you need to take a medical leave. In my employee handbook it says that the company supports employees who go to rehab for substance abuse problems.