by Jonte Rhodes

Created on: January 29, 2009

Drug testing is becoming increasingly commonplace in the workplace, and many companies now require any prospective employees to pass a drug test before they can start working there. However many people are against drug testing in the workplace, believing that it is both ineffective, and is also a breach of someone's privacy. However there are seemingly several different pros and cons of both arguments, meaning the issue is still hotly debated.

On the positive side of the argument, many companies rely on drug testing to make sure that the employees that they have are trustworthy. Employees who take illegal drugs are already breaking the law by doing so, and are more likely to be involved with other illegal activities than people who don't take drugs. It is also difficult for a business to be able to trust an employee who might potentially be using drugs while at work, impairing their ability.

Similarly there are certain jobs who need their employees to be clean and sober due to the nature of the job. For example a bus driver must be able to concentrate at all times, and would endanger the lives of his or her passengers if they were to take drugs. Another example of this would be a police officer, the judgment of whom can mean the difference between life and death for those people involved in the cases that they are solving.

People who are under the direct effects of drugs at work, or who are experiencing a comedown, are much less functional than they would usually be. This not only means that they wont work as well as they should be, but that their behavior may encourage others to do the same. After all, if one person is seemingly getting away with doing very little, others may begin to follow suit. Someone who has a bad drug habit might also tend to miss a lot of days from work due to feeling ill after having ingested the drugs.

On the other side of the argument is the fact that although many people do use drugs, the majority of them do so outside of work only. This then means that their work performance is not hampered by whatever drugs they might be doing in their own time. This being the case, an employer has no right to know anything about its employee or his or her actions other than while they are working. Anything else that they are doing outside of work is not relevant to what they do at work, because neither affects the other.

Also another criticism of drug testing in the workplace is that it very often simply isn't effective. If someone wants to take drugs

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