Drug testing Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Drug testing - Research Proposal Example There is a need to assure the publics safety when lives are placed in the hands of a pilot or a policeman. There is also a need to protect the privacy and rights of the individual that are a part of the American way of life. How do we reconcile public safety against the backdrop of the principle of presumed innocence? For most occupations drug testing is an excessive intrusion into privacy that violates the constitutional principles of self-incrimination and legal search and seizure. The constitutional guarantees that protect our privacy and require probable cause are illegally suspended when employers require mandatory and random drug testing. According to the US Department of Labor guidelines, "The current law in the private sector generally permits non-union companies to require applicants and/or employees to take drug tests" (Drug Testing). The long lasting remnants of drug residue and the possibility of false positive results erodes the reliability of these tests. Constitutional rights and the liability for poor results should not be a condition of employment in America. Schools have often been at the forefront of drug testing, but students also are protected by the constitution. Random testing should be eliminated in favor of the same laws that require probable cause that a crime has been committed. "Reasonable suspicion/cause testing involves a school requiring a student to provide a urine specimen when there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the student may have used an illicit substance" (What is drug testing). These are the same rules, laws, and constitutional protections that are granted to all Americans. Eliminating random drug testing in schools is simply abiding by our laws and constitution. Critics will argue that random drug testing is the surest and best way to eliminate drug use from the workplace and schools. They contend that the mere possibility of being tested greatly reduces drug use. However, the