Should drug testing be legal for the workplace?

[che]

Have you honestly never seen some bumbling stoner try to do something intricate? Performance is diminished, depending on the drug and the amount. Similar to alcohol -- drink one or two beers, and your performance won't diminish any noticeable amount. Hell, depending on what you're doing, performance might actually improve. But drink ten or twelve, and of course you won't do as well.

And the employee can choose to quit if they don't like it. Nobody is forcing them to work there. Besides, you've also got to factor in the appearance of the company. If a company is known to employ drunks and druggies -- even if they aren't drunk or drugged while working -- their reputation will take a hit.

Except it's not -- whether you think it should be or not. You're just bitching about an employer not wanting you to do something that's already against the law.

But if you want to consider it as a "right", you've also got to consider the employers' right to fire you. It's also my right to cuss like a sailor, but I'd be a moron if I didn't expect to get fired from most jobs for screaming obscenities at work.

It's an extremely poor analogy, considering the fact that porn isn't illegal. They might frown upon you looking at porn while at work, in which case most places will simply block inappropriate websites. And they can "block you" from doing drugs while at work, but not at home, just like looking at porn -- but again, the difference is that looking at porn isn't against the law and won't affect your work performance.

It doesn't take a test -- or a genius -- to figure out when somebody's an alcoholic.

Of course -- druggies are well-known for their resistance to addiction and their hesitance towards breaking laws, right?

Nice try. That would fall under race/religion/gender/national origin -- and discrimination by those actually is illegal. So no, it's absolutely nothing like refusing to hire a certain color of applicant. You're honestly trying to compare a company legally refusing to hire a criminal to a company illegally refusing to hire a person of a specific race. Keep reaching.

I admire your appreciation for what the laws currently are, but with the way you type you seem to come off as if you are unaware that they could eventually change.

Yes, you could argue that right now employers reserve the right to fire someone who is "using", but you are missing the fact that we are basically talking about changing or keeping the current laws. You might get fired for it now, but what if your employer suddenly didn't give a shit if you cursed at work? Would you start doing it?

[Heartless Angel]

Though Sasquatch beat me to it (as usual), I'll go ahead and respond again...

Pronography and being black aren't illegal. Those ARE legally nobody's business. It's not because of the drug specifically that employers don't like this; it's because it's against the damned law. If you commit mass murder in your off hours, would you expect your boss to high five you when you walk in the next day? No! You're a damned criminal, nobody who needs to maintain any kind of public image would want anything to do with you. If weed was legal, I doubt they'd test for it, because then, as long as you weren't showing up to work blazed, it wouldn't have any impact on your work, in which case it would be invasion of privacy if they drug tested you. Seeing whether or not they're employing criminals is not. And at this point in time, weed is illegal, so if you test positive, you are in fact a criminal, criminals recieve no special priveledges, they're punished. Don't like punishment, don't break the law. Simple solution.