[speaker002:] okay um so we're talking about drug testing on and how we feel about it in in in the work place
[speaker001:] correct I I assume this is involuntary drug testing from employers
[speaker002:] yeah yeah my my gut feeling is to probably side uh on the the Bill of Rights side of this and say that this it's an unfair invasion of privacy I I um it I have to say that I my from my political point of view I tend to be I tend to sort of fall in the liberal side of a lot of issues but at the same time uh part of my own picture of the way politics should work in this country is there also should be uh regulatory controls on things and I think that when you have situations where uh an uh a working individual uh could do damage for instance a an airline pilot uh you know or or somebody who's driving a public carrier like like truck drivers and stuff like that I think that there is a uh far more substantial issue uh at hand but I think there other ways um other than than doing things like drug testing to monitor the way um people behave um I think a good for instance a good manager should be able to tell that somebody's got a personal problem um in in like a clerical environment or a a work environment like I'm a I'm a computer programmer so if I were indulging in activities like that or one of my colleagues were um it would seem to me pretty easy to to tell if their performance was suffering for it I don't know how do you feel about these things
[speaker001:] right well I I I I tend to look at it like uh right I mean without without uh you know a suspicion of of you know reasonable suspicion of of something going on I I would have to probably tend to uh uh agree that at least in most cases it should not be done I I also my my big question of course is you know this is a pretty steep thing for uh something the last I heard was not a hundred percent effective
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] or you know accurate uh with it not being a hundred percent accurate that that leaves open you know quite a bit of room for you know false positive
[speaker002:] um-hum sure sure and that could ruin somebody's life
[speaker001:] uh absolutely you know that that
[speaker002:] even if they were vindicated
[speaker001:] sure sure because I mean it's like uh someone goes on trial for something the press lets everybody know so no matter how many times you're acquitted but uh so there is that I mean but also you know as as someone who does not use any controlled substances I you know part of me says well as long as it's accurate I don't care if they test and if someone is using it they should be you know caught for it as long as it's illegal
[speaker002:] sure
[speaker001:] uh so that you know that that is a tough things to juggle between the two
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh
[speaker002:] well I have to say I'm I'm a child of the sixties and uh it it you know I grew up and when I was young I flirted around with some of that stuff like a lot of my friends did and I saw a lot of my friends ruin their lives or not not really I don't know I guess I saw a couple of friends ruin their lives and that sort of thing but I didn't see most of them ruin their lives with it in fact most of them went through it like a phase like you know most teenagers will drink for a little while and then when they you know have to start you know working and that sort of thing they tend to cut it back to drinking on the weekends or whatever and and they become adults about it and uh in in fact my attitudes about the kinds of drug problems that we have in this country uh are are that I think that the government should administrate administrate it in a completely you know in a completely different manner I think it would be a a good source of revenue I think there's some some evidence about the way this stuff has been handled in Europe that shows that it can be controlled in different ways but that's sort of moving off the topic at hand here and I you know the the fact of the matter is is I think that issues like this really really are I mean to a certain extent they involve the whole question of liberty and a person's right to privacy and that sort of thing because uh uh you know I mean
[speaker001:] it also involves due process
[speaker002:] yeah and and uh it it I you know the fact of the matter is is I think that that an adult responsible worker doesn't want to have this kind of thing in his life if it's going to impact uh have an impact upon his ability to make a a a living and and you know and and keep his livelihood coming in
[speaker001:] and and that does bring up a good point in that if it's not having an impact then what right does the uh employer have to you know to get information about that
[speaker002:] sure and and and uh and and so you know it's uh I so anyway I guess that we're we're largely in agreement in that uh case and uh and in fact I think that uh because you know I mean I it's it's literally I you know I'm in my late thirties now and it's easily been um almost jeez man maybe twenty years almost since I last had any of that that sort of stuff uh around me but at the same time I don't think that that necessarily gives me a right to say