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341 lines
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Plaintext
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presents
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Drug Tests : the shape of things to come...
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by
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Bloody Afterbirth
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Toxic File #63
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from HIGH TIMES, July 1990, Issue #179. Article by Elin Wilder.
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Centre Of Eternity : 615.552.5747 40 Megs Lotsa Files
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Headquarters of Toxic Shock
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Tudor Nightmare Village : 615.928.6071
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Lunatic Labs : 213.655.0691 ?? Megs Lotsa Good Files
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!@#$%^&*&^%$#@!@#$%^&*&^%$#@!@#$%^&*&^%$#@!@#$%^&*&^%$#@!@#$%^&*&^%$#@!
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Yet another highly informative and thought provoking file from the
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greatest of all magazines, HIGH TIMES. As has become my habit, as 'payment'
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for using their articles, I tell you, the reader, how to subscribe and get
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all the things I'm leaving out.
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HIGH TIMES SUBSCRIPTIONS
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P.O. Box 410
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Mt. Morris, IL 61054
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United States Foreign (in US funds)
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One Year : $29.95 $37.45
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Two Years: $54.95 $68.95
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They mail it in a black cornstarch bag that decomposes within one year.
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If you have a credit card, you can call 800.435.0715 (In Illinois, it's
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800.892.0753)
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Is the government using urinalysis to help create a Super Race?
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Will drug tests in the future reveal your genetic assests?
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Read on...
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*&^%$#@!@#$%^&*&^%$#@!@#$%^&*&^%$#@!@#$%^&*&^%$#@!@#$%^&*&^%$#@!@#$%^&*
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Over 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies conduct urine tests as a
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prerequisite for employment. While you may never work for a Fortune 500
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company, they set the trends that other companies follow. And 80 percent is
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a whopping increase over the three percent of Fortune 500 companies that
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required mandatory drug testing for job applicants seven years ago.
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According to the latest government statistics, the majority of Americans
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approve of drug testing as an appropriate means of obtaining a drug-free
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work environment. A recent poll conducted by the US Chamber of Commerce's
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Institute for a Drug Free Workplace, in conjunction with the Gallup Poll,
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indicated that 97 percent of all Americans believe random drug testing is
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appropriate for employees in the following safety sensitive professions:
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airline pilots, transportation workers, truck drivers, construction workers,
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health care employees, and utility workers. Most Americans must be
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completely unaware of how inaccurate and unreliable these tests are, for
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when they were asked about drugs tests in non-safety sensitive fields, the
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pollsters reported that 73 percent of their group approved testing of
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factory workers, 67 percent approved tests for office workers, and 69 wanted
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testing for media professionals. These statistics were arrived at by
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polling 1,007 Americans whom the government felt were representative of the
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entire nation, with an error factor of three percent.
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[BA:Incidentally, NORML exposed Hoffman-La Roche Laboratories, the
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nation's largest drug testing company, as one of the primary backers
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of the Institute which took that survey. A conflict of interests
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if there ever was one. In addition, some of the findings from the
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poll that were NOT shared with the country until NORML uncovered
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them were:
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* Only 26 percent of those polled supported drug testing without
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"reservations", "serious limitations", or "not at all."
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* Less than one quarter of those polled had "ever seen or heard of
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on-the-job drug use."
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* Nearly all of those polled agreed with this statement : "If
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employees are tested for drug use, top management also should be
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tested."]
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Even worse, stricter regulations for collecting urine samples are being
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enforced -- such as witnessed specimen collection. The new "Drug Testing
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Guidelines" issued by the Federal Department of Health and Human Services
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has created a new job in relation to the testing of federal employees -- a
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"Collection Site Person." This is setting a precedent for the surveillance
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of workers in the name of making substitution of other people's clean urine
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samples a more difficult way to beat drug tests.
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FALSE POSITIVES
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However, even the use of "clean" urine, free from traces of illegal
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drugs, whether borrowed or bought, can register a false positive. Food and
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medication the donor igested that aren't illegal can show up as drugs.
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Poppy seeds (from a bagel, roll of bread, or Danish pastry) can cause a
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false positive for heroin or other opiates. Vicks Formula 44 doubles as
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codeine. Advil can show up as pot. And Nyquil can test positive for speed.
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According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the urine tests most
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commonly in use today yield false positives 10 to 30 percent of the time.
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The ACLU also noted that when 120 forensic scientists, including some who
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worked for drug test manufacturers, were asked "Is there anybody here who
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would submit urine for drug testing if his career, reputation, freedom or
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livelihood depended on it," not one of them said "Yes."
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Career expert Martine Yate is well aware of the increased use of drug
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testing in the workplace, as well as the inaccuracy of the tests, and he
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suggests that anyone seeking employment do the following : "When you're
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asked the question, `Are you willing to take a drug test as a condition of
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employment,' if you expect a job offer you have to say yes...That's okay
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because there's a good chance you won't be asked to actually do it. But
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when it moves from the hypothetical into the practical, `Are you prepared to
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take a drug test five minutes from now, or a half hour from now,' what I
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suggest is that you protect yourself by saying the following:`Yes, I am more
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than happy to take a drug test as a condition of employment, however, I have
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seen on the television, heard on the radio, and read in the newspapers that
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these tests sometimes generate false positives (and this is the key phrase)
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and I am assured that you will not take offense if I ask you the
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prescription drugs, the non-prescription drugs, common foods, liquids and
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spices liable to generate a false positive. I am also assured that in the
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event of a false positive you will use a backup test to either confirm or to
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prove that positive.'"
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As for the most commonly asked question, "How long does marijuana stay in
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the system," the experts I spoke to, including a former narcotics agent and
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the head of a private lab, disagreed. While they indicated that marijuana
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coul dbe detected within the system for up to thirty days, they couldn't
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come to an agreement on anything beyond that. One of the leading
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authorities on drug testing in the country, Dr. John Morgan of CUNY Medical
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School, had an interesting observation. One heavy pot smoker he knows of
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showed positive test results six weeks after kicking the pot habit, while
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another he spoke with showed up negative, even though he smoked a joint
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minutes before the test, and was high during the test. Apparently, these
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drug tests don't show anything until AFTER you get stoned, and after the THC
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metabolite has been passed through your system.
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DRUG TEST ABUSE
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If this weren't strange enough, these "drug preventative" urine tests
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don't just finger you for illegal substances, but for medical conditions as
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well. Although it's nearly impossible to prove, there's little doubt that
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some people are being discriminated against if they are found to be taking
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medication for hypertension, epilepsy, depression and diabetes, among other
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chronic illnesses. In 1987, a urinalysis lab caught the Washing, D.C.
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police department subjecting women's urine samples to pregnancy tests
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without their knowledge or permission. This is an example of one of the
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most common types of urine sample misuse. Although the ACLU took the
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offending police department to task for this, their action didn't get jobs
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or compensation for the women who were already discriminated against.
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In this instance the lab was the good guy -- acting on the employees
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behalf. Unfortunately, not all labs are as diligent as that one. As the
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demand for on-the-job drug testing has increased, so have the number of labs
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to accomodate employers. The catch is that ANYONE can set up a lab for the
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purposes of urine testing. There are no national standards at present that
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regulate labs in relation to drug testing. As a result, they make a lot of
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mistakes. Although figures vary on the percentage of lab errors, "up to 40
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percent" suggested one expert, even the government is aware that there is a
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need for the regulation of labs if drug testing is to remain the best way of
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policing drug use by American workers. At a time when the country is in a
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state of hysteria over employee drug use, the fact that private labs
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continue to go unmonitored or regulated has ominous implications for
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immediate and future employment.
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A good example of what's going on happened in New York recently when a
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large number of transit employees were randomly tested for drugs. All of
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those employees were subsequently fired, until someone realized that every
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single one of the tests had come back "positive." The lab had obviously
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made a mistake. While all the transit workers won a cash settlement, their
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lives were effectively ruined. And what if no one had ever noticed, or if
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they screwed up only half of the tests?
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BEYOND URINALYSIS
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Other tests are being developed for use in the near future. The most
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frightening of these is HAIR ANALYSIS. Already developed and ready for use,
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the only thing standing in the way of widespread hair testing is the cost.
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As we speak, technicians are hard at work developing a means of making it
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less cost-prohibitive to employers. While it may be more dignified to give
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up a strand of hair than a urine sample, be advised that hair analysis
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testing has the capacity to detect any chemical you have ingested within the
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last eight months (depending on the length of your hair).
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Hair analysis is just the beginning, though. Looming in the future is
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GENETIC TESTING. At the moment, genetic testing is primarily used by
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scientists trying to determine the origins of certain illnesses, and on
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fetuses (!) in an effort to find out what the chances are that they'll be
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born with hereditary health handicaps. Testing on fetuses is not widespread
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as yet, and being hotly debated since predisposition to any genetic order
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does not guarantee that the child will actually develop that disorder. The
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same is true for genetic testing on adults. Because you're genetically
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predisposed to diabetes does not guarantee that you'll get it. However,
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knowing that you're predisposed to diabetes might sway an employer to choose
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another applicant over you in order to keep possible health insurance costs
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down in the future. More horrible to contemplate are the other uses for
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genetic testing : Weeding out prespective employees for racial
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characteristics, mental makeup, or sexual tendencies. Don't forget that the
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Nazis did the first genetic testing in order to create a super race, and
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that's the shape of things to come as far as drug tests are concerned.
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NARCS ON YOUR JOB?
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"What about my rights?" you ask. Guess what -- you don't have very many
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left. For all this talk about the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights,
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the Fourth Amendment means next to nothing once you are in the private
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employer's domain. (The rights of public service employees are better, but
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we'll cover that later.) If you're like most Americans, you work for a
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privately owned company. Once you walk through their doors, you're not
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protected by the Bill of Rights. This means if you find out, as I myself
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did, that they are recording and/or monitoring your phone calls or VDT
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input, there is little you can do about it except ask them to stop. This is
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only possible if you know it's going on. I was lucky, my employer was
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unaware of the bugging as well, and when he found out he insisted it be
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stopped. Not everyone is so lucky. The increased anxiety on the part of
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employers concerning substance abuse in the workplace has increased
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on-the-job surveillance. This canmean anything from monitoring and/or
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recording phone calls and video display terminal input to undercover cops
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infiltrating the workplace.
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A former police detective who now heads a company that deal in undercover
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operations and drug education explained to me how it works. "We go in and
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we evaluate the situation as an independent source," he said. "Management
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might have received anonymous tips, gotten complaints from other employees,
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or maybe they've been finding paraphenalia out on the floor and all of a
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sudden they start seeing increased absenteeism and low productivity
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hampering the quality of their product. They suspect that something is
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taking place that they can't see during day-to-day activities. So what we
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do is provide a credible investigator, who then becomes the eyes and ears of
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the corporation, recording everything he sees and hears."
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These investigators spy on workers, taking notes on what they see going
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on, report on those who they believe are involved, and compose a written
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evaluation that confirms or denies the company's suspicions that there's a
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drug problem within their walls. After approximately 90 days, a
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determination is made as to how the company would like to handle the
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situation. One of the questions surrounding these undercover operations is
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whether all the information they turn over to the companies is strictly
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related to illegal drug use.
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An American Civil Liberties attorney has this to say on the topic of
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undercover investigation in the workplace : "The practice is becoming more
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and more common. It harkens back to company spies, Pinkertons, and now
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in-store detectives. It's very problematic. It's not regulated by the
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Constitution at all. It's a very dangerous practice and it has the same
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characteristics as drug testing. Confidences you would share in the
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workplace are not necessarily ones you would want your employer to overhear,
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and although they say that they only give the employer drug-related
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information, there's no way to know."
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Anonymous tips and drug testing can also be used as aweapon against
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unpopular employees. For instance, the ACLU recently represented several
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employees of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Their supervisor was angry
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at them for blowing the whistle on them. This plant has a drug hotline
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where anyone could phone in an anonymous top against a fellow employee
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accusing them of using drugs, and anyone reported was then immediately
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called in for a drug test. These six "whistle blowers" were called in on the
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hotline and subjected to drug tests. The ACLU quickly filed a complaint
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with the Department of Labor which they ultimately won, but the whole
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process took years.
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"Those people basically lost their jobs, we think, because of their
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whistle-blowing activity," added the ACLU attorney, "and it's easy to
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imagine how it could be used to thwart a union organizing drive or something
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like that...particularly in today's climate where if you're labeled as a
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drug user, basically your life is over, that's it. It's such an incredible
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stigma during the era of the war on drugs that it's a very powerful weapon
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in the hands of management today."
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Employees in the public sector (ie:government employees) are in better
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shape than private sector employees because the government has to adhere to
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the Bill of Rights and people who work for Uncle Sam are therefore protected
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by the Fourth Amendment. This is changing as the rules are bent in the case
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of public sector employees who are "responsible for public safety." In two
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recent cases, the majority court held that urine tests are searches but, in
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the case of these particular employees (customs guards and railroad workers)
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testing was allowed without probable cause on the ground that their Fourth
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Amendment rights were outweighed by the government's interest in maintaining
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a drug-free workplace. [BA:thought the rights were inalienable...]
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FIGHTING BACK
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How can we be counted and make our voices heard?
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First of all, bring the issues of drug testing and surveillance to the
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attention of your union. These are issues that can be put on the table for
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collective bargaining. Impress upon union leaders that privacy and freedom
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in the workplace is equally important as pay raises and other benefits.
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If you don't have a union, and 80 percent of American workers do not,
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start one, or discreetly start a campaign and petition to stop bugging and
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testing practices in your workplace. (Be careful. Remember:Big Brother is
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watching.) Call the local chapter of the AFL/CIO to find out how to start a
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union in your area.
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Any time you see a story relating to these issues, take the time to write
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letters to the editor of your local papers or magazines. You might inspire
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them to investigate further into abuses and misuses of testing and bugging
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by management.
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You should be advised that seven states do have legislation that protects
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the rights of employees and job applicants. These states are : Montana,
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Iowa, Vermont, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. In these states
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you cannot be tested without probable cause. Vermont's laws go even
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further, citing that an employer cannot test at all unless they have
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available to their employees a "bone fide rehabilitation program."
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That's the good news. The bad news is the new bi-partisan bill called
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the Borne-Hatch Bill that's being sold as a way to regulate lab standards.
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What it really does is remove any threat of an employer from being sued by
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an employee in the future. Already, most law suits brought by employees
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against employers in relation to drug testing have been lost, but some have
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been won. Removing that small threat will only open the glood gates for
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more random testing. Worst of all it will supercede the state laws
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mentioned before.
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Write to your elected officials, and start a campaign to get everyone to
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write and/or petition local officials. Fight the Borne-Hatch bill that's
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threatening our cibil liberties.
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Stay informed and active. Contact your local chapter of the American
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Civil Liberities Union and ask how you can get involved with their Task
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Force on Civil Liberties and receive their newsletters. Join NORML, and ask
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for their drug testing literature. And join the Freedom Fighters. Work
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with your local state chapter head to think of new ways to fight back.
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Ultimately, drug testing is being used as an excuse to take away all of
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our freedoms and create a chemical police state. If you and the people you
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know don't stop it, who will?
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(c)opied right from HIGH TIMES June 1990 Bloody Afterbirth/Toxic Shock
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Freedom Fighters
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211 East 43rd St.
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New York, New York 10017
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Membership is $15. You get a card, a year's subscription to their
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newsletter, invitations to pro-pot rallies, HIGH TIMES parties, and other
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special events.
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Make check payable to Trans-High Corp.
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