[speaker002:] drug testing hey
[speaker001:] yeah um my opinion uh is not quite well enough formulated for for real debate but above all I really really believe that uh first of all people are innocent until proven guilty and secondly that there in some sense there's a sort of sanctity of the body issue in that I don't really believe that other people would have the right for someone to under go a blood test without their explicit consent so I think that pretty much clearly leads me to my conviction conviction that I I do not believe that uh spot drug tests or required drug tests should be should be you know mandated however they could be done with the person's consent
[speaker002:] I'm a little bit more uh against it than that because I see this as an absolute parallel to the McCarthy witch hunts when anybody who held
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] liberal opinions or supported civil rights was considered an evil satanic agent of Moscow quite often I mean there's the legitimate concern of people who are too stupid not to use chemicals that impair can impair their behavior in a job
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] where they better be on top of things like running trains flying planes or uh driving buses and also uh the uh strictures against driving uh unimpaired while impaired should apply to any chemical of any kind whether the government has authorized the use of that chemical or not
[speaker001:] okay well I maybe I should qualify mine and and mention of course there are some legal parameters that need to be observed as well and uh in the case of driving it's not a it it's a privilege to drive and there's certain things that go along with it but even then they don't force you to take any kind of test if you simply don't take the test then you just you know
[speaker002:] and they take your license on the assumption that you're guilty which makes sense but this is not the issue here
[speaker001:] yeah right in that case because it clearly clearly endangers someone in that case
[speaker002:] it's not the issue in question though because what the government is trying to do is to truly impose thought control they are saying there are things you cannot do to your mind and body because we have not authorized to do it and further more if we think that you are uh we're going to make sure that you can't get a job or that you'll be fired from your job if you are engaging in this behavior now blood tests aren't really being called for what they're doing is calling for piss tests which technically it's leaving your body but whatever it is they shouldn't even have the right to ask
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] they shouldn't have the right to prohibit these chemicals what they should have the right to prohibit is misuse of anything
[speaker001:] oh I see you're you're a much more baser at at at the issue of uh of the drug issue than I am apparently uh
[speaker002:] yeah I think that it's just a witch hunt and that the people being hit the hardest are the ones that cause the least impact something like eighty percent of the tests and the positive tests and the arrests contain concern marijuana the only commonly used drug that has no traceable deaths from overuse none even aspirin kills thirty two people a year and if by all standards that can be compared potential for abuse uh general impact on society physical impact on the individual this drug should not be outlawed but the right wing does not want to hear talk like that and so on top of that goes the whole Republican drug testing uh intervention and control of your body attitude an interesting side note of this is the Motorola company lost eighteen months of development on the oh four oh chip because they instituted drug testing and the entire development team for that chip left the company
[speaker001:] ah wow
[speaker002:] and that's why it took this long for the oh four oh to get out they scuttled their own boat and cost themselves millions of dollars for that
[speaker001:] well uh as as far as I I'm not sure you you sort of seem to be kind of saying that you have the right to uh pursue any kind of substance that you'd like except for in certain circumstances like driving is that what you're trying to say
[speaker002:] I'd say it's pretty much it's uh right to privacy the individual can do whatever they want as long as they don't negatively impact other individuals it is then that negative impact that should be looked at not the uh not the direct cause of it it's under those grounds that we don't have alcohol prohibition or tobacco prohibition
[speaker001:] right well not having alcohol tobacco prohibition and and uh tobacco prohibition uh I think those are more historical artifact of uh the link between the business and the government though because there
[speaker002:] yeah that's true too especially with tobacco
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and alcohol they did try to ban it they failed utterly they failed miserably and led to the creation of the modern day mafia
[speaker001:] well hey they were successful
[speaker002:] and that's pretty much what's happen that's pretty much what's happened with other with the the current prohibition
[speaker001:] well I'm I guess we should get back to to the the drug testing issue
[speaker002:] to tell yeah that we are getting a stray
[speaker001:] yeah um well I'm trying to think of of more coherent thought it's kind of difficult to have a debate