Drug testing is everywhere, there are many people who have their privacy invaded and civil rights violated due to suspicionless drug testing such as employees, students, and welfare recipients. Drug testing for no individualized reason for suspicion is unconstitutional and is also a violation of civil rights. There are strong arguments on both sides of the drug testing issue because on one hand some argue that drug tests should be allowed because drugs are illegal and that it gives people a reason to “just say no” and stay away from the use the illegal drugs as well as preventing people who receive public aid from spending taxpayers money on illegal drug use. However, on the other hand some argue that suspicionless drug testing should not be…show more content… The major problem with suspicionless drug testing is that people's civil rights are being violated and their privacy is being invaded when they are forced to take a drug test and nothing is really being done to protect people's privacy and civil rights. This issue has existed in society since drug testing has been used in places such as schools and workplaces despite multiple studies on drug testing which indicates drug testing to be ineffective. As stated in “Is Drug Testing Effective for Schools?”, “A national study published last week in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs found drug testing to have no effect on student drug use”…show more content… Drug tests can have a false-positive result that can be damaging to someone's reputation and negatively affect their life even though they haven’t done anything wrong. Typical drug tests can only detect the harder drugs such as heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine for three to five days. Therefore, if a person wanted to pass a drug test for hard drugs they would only have to abstain from use for three to five days (Brennan). However, marijuana a much safer drug that is used recreationally and medically has a detection period of fourteen to thirty days and in some situations even longer (Rosenberg). This is an issue because people who use marijuana medically can be fired from their place of employment for using a drug recommended by a doctor, however people who are prescribed anxiety medication, painkillers, and many other types of medication cannot be fired due to their use of their drugs prescribed by a doctor. The reason people can be fired for medical marijuana use is due to marijuana being illegal according to federal law but not state law, unlike many types of abused prescription medications
