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From: tedrick@ernie.berkeley.edu (Tom Tedrick)
Newsgroups: net.jobs
Subject: Re: Drug Testing GOOD POINT!
Message-ID: <12529@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Fri, 21-Mar-86 13:13:44 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.12529
Posted: Fri Mar 21 13:13:44 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Mar-86 22:40:12 EST
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Reply-To: tedrick@ernie.berkeley.edu.UUCP (Tom Tedrick)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
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>>Ok, I'll throw my 2c in.

OK, I'll throw my 1c worth in.

There are 2 points that seem not to have come up
in this discussion.

(1). The reason employers can get away with drug testing.
     (Wealth & Power: ie employers tend to have more than
      individual employees. If one potential employee 
      won't cooperate, there are lots of other desperate
      folks willing to accept the drug testing in return
      for work. So by "divide and conquer" the workers
      are forced to go along.)

     (Of course when workers have more power, ie through
     organizations such as unions, or the labor supply is
     scarce, for example in highly skilled technical fields,
     it is more difficult for employers to get away with it.)

(2). How to cheat the drug testing system if it exists, and
     what are the incentives of the parties involved. Usually
     when this type of protocol is established few people
     really care to enforce it and it degenerates into a
     kind of absurd ritual which few really care much about
     (example is signing loyalty oaths).