---
title: O.C.G.A. § 45-20-110. Definitions.
collection: code
id: 45-20-110
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 45-20-110 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/45-20-110
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/45-20-110.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/45-20-110/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t45-(v33)-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=c5ce751b_0#page=156
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/45-20.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/45-20-93.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/45-20-111.md
index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: PUBLIC OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES / PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION / DRUG TESTING FOR STATE EMPLOYMENT
---

# O.C.G.A. § 45-20-110. Definitions.

As used in this article, the term:

(1) “Applicant” means a candidate who is offered public employment with any agency, department, commission, bureau, board, college, university, institution, or authority of any branch of state government or who has commenced employment but has not submitted to an established test for illegal drugs.

(2) “Established test” means the collection and testing of bodily fluids administered in a manner equivalent to that required by the Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs (HHS Regulations 53 Fed. Reg. 11979, et seq., as amended).

(3) “Illegal drug” means marijuana/cannabinoids (THC), cocaine, amphetamines/methamphetamines, opiates, opioids, opioid analgesics, opioid derivatives, or phencyclidine (PCP). Such term shall not include any drug when used pursuant to a valid prescription or when used as otherwise authorized by state or federal law.

(4) “Job” means a defined set of key responsibilities and performance standards encompassing one or more positions sufficiently similar in responsibilities and performance standards to be grouped together.

(5) “Medical review officer” means a properly licensed physician who reviews and interprets results of drug testings and evaluates those results together with medical history or any other relevant biomedical information to confirm positive and negative results.

(6) “Position” means a set of duties and responsibilities assigned or delegated by competent authority for performance by one person.

## History

Code 1981, § 45-20-110, enacted by Ga. L. 1995, p. 667, § 3; Ga. L. 2012, p. 446, § 1-1/HB 642; Ga. L. 2018, p. 205, § 1/HB 701.

## Law Reviews

For article on the 2018 amendment of this Code section, see 35 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 169 (2018).

## Amendments

The 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, in paragraph (3), inserted “opioids, opioid analgesics, opioid derivatives” in the first sentence, and substituted “Such term” for “The term ‘illegal drug’ ” at the beginning of the second sentence.