Comment: The company needs to downsize employees, is looking for

valid reasons to do so.

Nearly the exact scenario happened to my brother 5 years ago when the HVAC company he worked for for four (4) years fired him for a minor mistake. It made no sense and he was shell-shocked until he found out the next day that 3 or 4 (four) other long-term employees were also let go. This coupled to the fact that the company was moving to a new facility 5 miles away and would have access to new employees that could start at the bottom of the wage scale.

Also, drug tests ain't cheap. Even if it comes out negative it will still be on his record that a test was ordered which may later be given as an additional reason (on top of whatever else they concoct) for why the decision to let him go was made.

The test results may also come back positive through error or by design. Not to say that the company heads are a bunch of evil prigs that way but it's likely that at least one person in the HR dept lives by the same motto as Mitt Ramen Noodle - 'I love firing people.'