[speaker001:] so you don't oh uh random drug testing is kind of tough because it it involves this kind of uh trading off of of our individual civil rights for some kind of concept of uh furthering a common good almost you know there there's a there's a there's a trade off of our civil rights against I guess our employer's right to to having a good job or something
[speaker002:] uh I don't don't really see the employers as having a whole lot to do with it I've already it the um privilege of being a victim of random drug testing I spent four years in the Marine Corps and had to pee in a bottle on command
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and it was really a really aggravating and time wasting thing to do um the thing that I really hated most about it was the total waste behind it all they would get maybe between fifty and two hundred and fifty of us together and it would you know we'd lose the whole morning what is that that's a thousand man hours uh to go go through this and in the end they would just be shooting for trying to catch a few specific people it really aggravated me I wasn't happy with it at all in fact after I got out I made the decision that I would not work for a company that did that um it just doesn't seem right that a company would do something like that I can appreciate um concern over somebody being under the influence while they're at work but they could easily be under the influence of alcohol or any number of other things as well
[speaker001:] yeah uh well that's that's a good point the only uh the only thing I really disagree with is and and this isn't this isn't exactly disagreement with I'm not sure that drug testing is strictly aimed to catch people but I would think that it also acts as a deterrent if someone if someone knows that there's a threat that that they might get caught it might be that much more of an impetus to to stay away from from whatever the drug is they're they're on
[speaker002:] now that's implying that um as a punitive kind of a thing as well you definitely want to discourage that is that kind of what you're saying
[speaker001:] well I mean I would think that uh if someone knows that there's there's an even greater chance that they're they're going to get caught um having drugs that that that that would act to discourage them that it would um you know if you know dad's in the other room perhaps you're going to be less likely to steal the the cookies out of the cookie jar because he might be coming in any minute you know
[speaker002:] yeah well I guess that's a good policy then if uh you're definitely for eradicating drugs from society I'm not so certain that that's a a worthwhile goal right now it looks like there's a lot of problems with um you know keeping drugs illegal things that are really scary a lot of people are dying and there's a lot of bloodshed and that that disturbs me I live downtown and uh man
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] right diagonal across from campus is uh Teakwood Homes it's the oldest housing project in the country Roosevelt opened it and man there's shootings in there nightly and if it wasn't for the uh you know the the high profit margin I don't think it would be going on I don't think that uh we'd have the crime over there that we do and man it really spills over into the neighborhood here as well there's at least one nasty bloody violent crime per year um over here where one of the students is a victim
[speaker001:] well the the uh the mayor of Baltimore is a Rhodes Scholar and I I forget his name but one thing that he suggested doing was taking the money taking all the money that he gets for uh uh fighting the war on drugs and use it for like drug education to to open up the methadone programs to get the people off drugs that that wanna be off drugs um
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] in thinking that that it's we're not doing a good job at fighting the war you know in in trying to crack down on people that are using drugs maybe legalizing them and and trying to help those that you know having the resources there to help someone um would be a better idea but and and I agreed with him somewhat I could see his point but uh Switzerland opened up a um uh a park
[speaker002:] is that the park yeah
[speaker001:] and and for years it just kept getting worse more and more people kept coming to the park and it just kept getting worse and worse and worse until finally the Swiss have they decided to close it down
[speaker002:] yeah I just saw that in the news here recently
[speaker001:] so uh I don't know it mean it sounds like it sounds like there aren't going to that there isn't a perfect solution
[speaker002:] yeah it really is a dirty mess very difficult to come to conclusions I guess one uh one other data point is the old um prohibition here in the US the consequences of that and it's ultimate uh repealment
[speaker001:] that's a good point that's a good point and although although alcohol consumption did jump right after prohibition it did come back down
[speaker002:] yeah and it's funny how today in movies and all we really glorify those gangsters and that lifestyle it's kind of spooky
[speaker001:] yes we do we do
[speaker002:] I guess I guess even today in today's movies a lot