Ban Drug Testing

I believe drug testing is an unreasonable search, and that it forces people to incriminate themselves. Many who take the same position believe drug testing violates the 4th and 5th amendments. The counter argument is that the Constitution doesn't apply to private organizations.

It comes down to these values. An employer's right to know who s/he is
hiring stands in conflict with an individual's right to privacy. I wrote
this petition because I value the right to privacy more.

I also believe people SHOULD have the right to consume any substance
they want [without limits] given that they are knowledgeable about that
chemical. Employers, like anyone, have been effected by the Reafer Madness
Movement.

The government pushed massive amounts of misinformation throughout communities and schools, and I don't believe that employers are
well informed enough yet to dictate what drugs will harm the workplace.

The only effective way to select workers is to evaluate their
performance on the job. Drugs can actually improve performance. Aspirin
relieves pain, allowing a worker to continue. Marijuana (when consumed on
the job) makes repetitive factory oriented work more interesting, which
lengthens a workers attention span. Marijuana will actually make some
people more alert. After intensive testing, someone I know can solve the
Rubix Cube 20 seconds faster when stoned (not scientific proof, yet
interesting). Stimulants will keep workers productive at the end of long
work days. If the negative effects of drug use begin to show in the
worker's performance, their employer has a number of options for dealing
with it.

Phil Smith summarizes an article in March 1990 Scientific American:
[The article] suggested that workers who tested positive for marijuana only: 1) cost less in health insurance benefits; 2) had a higher than average rate of promotion; 3) exhibited less absenteeism; and 4) were fired for cause less often than workers who did not test positive. Since marijuana is the most common illicit drug used by adults, and the one detected in up to 90 percent of all "positive" drug tests (half of which are false),
this fact has radical implications for current public and employer policies.

I could hardly believe what I was reading, but this article did carry
sufficient statistical evidence.
I see greater negative effects in drug testing than in drug use. In my
opinion, drug testing is un-American because guilt is assumed until the
test proves innocence. Our current conservative totalitarian Congress is
extremely irresponsible, and the peoples' civil liberties are suffering.
The Senate is even more threatening to our rights than Congress. This
particular privacy violation costs businesses $1.2 billion a year for
urinalysis of their workers. The military is notorious for their strict
drug tests. (note that marijuana helped soldiers in times of war). If you test positive in California, your drivers license is automatically
suspended for 6 months. Nightbyrd has "counseled several, very straight,
elderly workers - close to retirement -who were fired and lost their
pension benefits because they 'failed their drug test'" (Jeff Nightbyrd).

Bernard Williams of the Philadelphia Eagles failed the drug test for
marijuana. He was suspended from the NFL for six games for using a drug
that doesn't enhance performance. If anything, marijuana would detract
from an athletes performance. Let the coach judge Williams performance.

Now it's becoming popular for parents to drug test their children. Perfect; let's break up the families; cut down those lines of communication
and sneak around spying on our kids. Let's violate the child's privacy. We
use DARE like the salem witch hunts - to get children to turn in their parents. Now with DrugAlert, parents have a weapon to use on their kids.
The U.S. Supreme court just ruled June 1995 that public high schools
can require drug test for all student athletes. Many high schools already
do random searches on students; not for weapons, but for drugs. After all,
the Constitution has failed to protect children in the classroom, why not
expand? Students have lost 1st, 4th, and 5th amendment rights, and I think
it's absurd. We have patriotic history teachers telling children of their Constitutional rights, yet children aren't given these rights on campus. Kids get kicked out of school for questioning rules that violate the
Constitution.

It's also important to consider the discrimination factor. People with
dark skin may fail the urine test due to the false positive melenin. Drugs
are detected easier in dark haired people when the hair test is used. We are sacrificing too many important rights by allowing drug testing
to continue. Until this unjust drug testing frenzy is put to an end,
children, workers, military service people, and parolee's need to learn how
to protect themselves from the drug test.

I have no medical or legal credentials. I haven't even been drug tested myself (because I refuse to). I use the internet to research drug testing, and compile this paper from that information. I've talked to several knowledgeable people who either drug test, or get drug tested. I'm an activist against the War on [Some] Drugs, and I think that the government has taken the drug war to a ludicrous level. Laws created by the
legislature to protect me from myself demonstrate how totalitarian this
country has become. NORML reports that every *9* seconds someone gets
arrested for marijuana posession.

Please sign this petition if you think the government is violating your personal life by drug testing.