It's your right, right?

Surfing around today I found this site which is fervently against drug testing. I found it both highly informative and highly amusing. They basically have good information, kindled lightly with shouts of "It's an INVASion of privacy!" and "it's UNCONSTITUTIONAL!" In other words, they have an emotional and political agenda to push, and uses loaded words to try and sidestep their real point.

The hypocracy inherent in the site amuses me. Somehow drug testing is a violation of privacy and basic human rights. Somehow failing a drug test is the false accusation of an innocent person. Neither of these statements is true whatsoever.

The reason a urine test isn't a violation of your privacy is because you're agreeing to take one. (I admit I don't know all the federal and military protocol when it comes to drug testing, but that's outside the scope of what I'm talking about. The government can't legally kill you either, but there are extreme cases where it is lawful to do so.) but there is no possible way you can be forced to take a drug test. Sure, there are consequences for choosing not to do so; but in the end it's your choice. If your employer says "Go take one!" and you don't want to, you don't have to. It means you won't get that job of course, but all actions and all decisions have consequences, including the decision to do drugs to begin with.

The "innocent person" excuse doesn't fly either because someone who does illegal drugs is, by definition, guilty of a crime. Whether you believe the law is fair or not is completely irrelevant -- the fact is that, at present, smoking dope is a crime and if you're caught doing it you have to pay the consequences. Arguing that the law you broke shouldn't be a law doesn't hold any water. Disagreeing with the law doesn't give you an excuse to break it. Again, you choose to do this and you must face the penalties for it.

If this particular job is so important to you, and you absolutely positively must have it, then quit the damn drugs they don't want you to do. Crying "It's not fair!" or "It's my life! My employer should stay out of it!" doesn't work. If you get a job at McDonald's, you can't wear a Burger King uniform to work. Oh, sure, you can wear a Burger King uniform all dang day if you want, but when you show up at McDonald's you are expected to wear their uniform and abide by their rules -- and they can terminate your employment if you don't. If an employer doesn't want you doing illegal drugs while working for his company, that's his business. If you disagree with him, don't work there. It's that simple!

This is the same exact argument the anti-smoking lobby uses. "It's everyone's air, so smoking should be banned." They assume that you have the inherent right to clean air in any environment you choose to enter, even if that environment is a smoky bar. Anti-smoking people say "This waitress has the right to work in a smoke-free environment, therefore her employer doesn't have the right to let people smoke there." The anti-drug test people say "This waitress has the right to smoke pot whenever she wants, therefore her employer doesn't have the right to drug test her." I don't see how you can rationalize the two arguments... and I find it very hard to believe that the anti-drug test lobby and the anti-smoking lobby are the same group of people.

About the most illegal thing I do (aside from murder of government officials and tax fraud of course) is jaywalking. Or jayriding, as the case may be. This is the act of crossing a road outside of the crosswalk. Why do I do it? Because it's more convenient in most cases, and in some it can actually be safer (and anyone who disagrees has never seen the intersection of Ulmerton and 66th Street, with its awkward right-turn lanes and complete lack of crosswalks). However, if I were caught jaywalking I wouldn't pitch a fit. I'd get a ticket, I'd pay it, I'd take my lumps. Would I quit jaywalking? Hell no. I've been doing it for years and now it's habit. The chances of getting caught are low anyway, and like I said, in some cases it's beneficial for me to do so rather than going to a busy intersection. But that doesn't excuse me from the penalties imposed upon me by the society I live in when I do it. The law is the law, for better or worse.

The guys behind that website want to put on a persona of high-and-mighty freedom fighters, standing up for the little people oppressed by a huge, evil government. The reality? The government has very little to do with most drug testing you'll be up against. It's a private decision made by private employers that you can choose not to participate in. In reality, these guys just want to get away with committing their crime.

Should marijuana be legal? Yeah, probably. But that's not the point. It's not legal at the moment and everyone needs to play by the same rules. I'm not saying you should quit smoking dope. I'm saying you should pay the piper if you get caught. Nobody is so stupid as to not realize their actions have consequences.

For all the "freedom fighting" this website does, it sure focuses a lot on how to cheat on a drug test and not very much on how to change the laws. You'd think the site would offer all sorts of resources people could use to help legalize the drugs they want to take. Unless, of course, it's not about the "freedom" at all but just about the fear of getting caught.