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Originally Posted by Mr Mephisto
I think the fact that many jobs in the US require you to take drug tests is wierd.
For a country that feels so strongly about "personal freedom" and "privacy", I find this a strange paradox.
What happens on your own time, in your own home, should remain there. Who's business is it but yours?
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I don't think you would be feeling this way if you had my experience. I was Ramp Servicman (fancy name for baggage handler) for Eastern Airlines (if any of you remember them) for several summers and holiday breaks during college. My last year there I got pared to work a gate with the same guy 3 saturdays in a row. He came in all three days strung out on coke and alcohol. He had not clue which way was up. It just so happens that we were working a gate where the big planes parked and most of them had engines under the wings, making them very dangerous. After babysitting him for two weeks I got tired of it and turned his but in the 3rd time. He was a danger to me, the other guys working, the passengers and company property. I could not trust him to drive without hitting something nor could I trust him to give directions to the pilot while parking the plane. It was bad.
Did he do drugs at work? No, he did them on his time. Did he come to work wasted? Yes and that made his personal time the business of myself and the company.
The really sad part of this is that after he was fired for his actions, the union reps threatened me with physical violence because I had gotton one of the brothers fired. There were several rough nights in the parking lot after that. They did not care what he had done, but were rather too caught up in the us vs them mentality that labor often has when dealing with management. In the end, they got him his job back and he continued to come to work strung out.
I have supported drug testing ever since...