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As the Dead Kennedys used to say, if you like school, you'll love work.
It looks like Labour are being clever in the way that the Reagan Administration were. They don't pass a law mandating drug testing--even Reagan couldn't get away with that--but instead grant permission to grade schools and companies, where Constitutional / English Bill of Rights protections are weak.
(This is not allowed in the Netherlands; I don't know about the rest of the EU.)
(U.S. Libertarian silence on this issue seems like a whopping blind spot. Governments can't test for drugs but companies can? It's hard to say "go get a different job" when the market's bad and most companies test anyway. And where does it stop? Can the boss demand you quit smoking, go to (his) church on Sunday? Stay in the closet if you're gay? If you don't like it, quit. And decriminalizing some drugs won't necessarily lead to changes in company policies.)
Random drug testing is wrong for a number of reasons.
It presumes guilt; innocence must be proven. It lumps the innocent in with the guilty. All are suspect from the moment you walk in the door. Treat people like criminals and they behave accordingly, sooner or later. People using the "nothing to hide" argument should be forced to live in glass houses with webcams and microphones installed, and all the data of their lives should be made public. The rest of us are under no such obligation.
Years ago, when my former workplace set up a drug testing policy, a cow-orker suggested that all of us in the department set an example by volunteering. I was shocked to say the least; the guy had been falsely accused of robbing a local bank, on the basis of a blurry photo taken at an ATM. The local prosecutor only grudgingly dropped the case; meanwhile the guy spend about $50,000 on a lawyer. I'd thought he'd defend presumption of innocence more fiercely.
Random testing's ostensible rationale is to prevent drug use at school or at work, but it also regulates behavior off the clock. In other words, the boss or principal has you only 40-48 hours a week; drug testing lets hir watch you the rest of the time. Last I checked, I only get paid for 40 hours.
It punishes one's chemical condition, not actual behavior. Taking or holding illegal drugs at school or work, or being clearly under their influence, is legitimately actionable. Having their metabolites long after the high and/or hangover are past is not. |
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