Drug Testing at Work

I recently read a blog post about drug testing in places where people work. Following this blog post I saw another one posting against it and why everyone had the right to their own privacy. Although I could find reasons to not agree with both, I have more of a personal reason to say that every place has a right to make sure their employees are not doing anything they are not supposed to be doing. If a person is chosen for a specific job and they are serious about what he or she does, he or she should have no reason to not cooperate with drug testing. I understand that everyone has the right to privacy; however, certain substances are illegal for a reason. Therefore, there should be no trouble when an employer wants to know if his or her employees are obeying those rules. If an employee is on drugs then that would make them more prone to absences in work and it could make them less efficient in the work that they do for that company. The employer should always have the right to find out if there is a reason that they should keep an employee or hire someone based on these tests. If there is another applicant that is clean then they would obviously rather choose him or her then someone who might have a problem. If a person is clean at the time when they are hired and find that they cannot handle the stress of the job that they have and turn to drugs to help them cope, this is another reason for more drug testing. If an employee cannot handle it then they should not have the right to have the job. Being stressed is one thing, but dealing with that stress by using drugs is another. One example of a job that would be high stress like that is being a doctor. I have a personal event that took place involving a doctor that abused drugs, and it ended up taking a life.

A very close family friend of mine was expecting her first child when she found out that the baby was having some issues that I am unsure of. They told her that surgery would have to be done while she was pregnancy. The surgery did not end up going well and baby did not live. Soon after this my friend found out that during the operation on her and her baby the doctor was drunk and high on pills and he was the reason for the death of the baby. It was horrible event in all of our lives, especially her life, because it could have been easily avoided and she could have that little girl with her today.

This event has made me strongly agree with drug testing in the working environment, especially hospitals. Anyone with the power to do what doctors do should always be clean of any substance. Anyone who is a professional should have no reason to feel that they need to turn to drugs. Life can get stressful, but that’s life. Employers should always have the right to make sure that their employees are not doing anything illegal. It is illegal for a reason.