Mandatory Drug Testing - Assignment Example

Mandatory Drug Testing Among numerous issues the modern world is to cope with availability of drugs andtheir use and misuse are one of key burning questions to be tackled as soon as possible. The thing is that the scales of the problem have reached the extent that it becomes the global threat for people’s health as well as national welfare. The magnitude of drug addiction spread is challenging for physical and moral health of humanity, the future of its majority, and social stability of society. In this respect, there is an urgent necessity to establish mandatory drug testing in every possible institutions, which have shown their involvement into drug use. The experience of recent years shows that drug spread causes numerous problems for present-day life penetrating into almost every sphere of human activity, starting from school and high educational establishments through job and finding its direct aftereffect in drug misuse in prisons, which in addition very often appear to be an immediate result of personal involvement into drug use or indirect distribution of different substances. One way or another, drugs as pervasive evil touches and destroys people’s life day by day endangering prosperity of their future as minimum and their physical being and psychological health as maximum. The main reason for this lies in inappropriate control or lack of control in such an essential question as drug use by people of various occupations whether they are teachers, students, employees or inmates. In this regard, mandatory drug testing must be accepted and applied universally in the places that have displayed their engagement into drug consumption. There is a strong belief that any kind of tests related to questions of drug use and applied for clarifying of a situation within the issue may be extremely stressful for persons under test. Moreover, they are able to have a negative impact on the reputation of such persons. As a matter of fact, there are particular disadvantages of mandatory drug testing, which can be found in errors and faults of the procedure itself. The question is that any tests and researches are supposed to have some drawbacks, this is the fact. Still, except people’s intentional misrepresentation of absolute data in the matter of drug use or misuse, there even cannot be evident large errors of mechanic origin, since modern equipment is engineered according to the latest scientific discoveries. This is the particular slightness of the opinion. People tend to believe that “The drug tests are incredibly invasive, may read a false positive, or may be done improperly.... ”(Anonymous, 1996). As it is obvious from above mentioned facts, total misleading in drug testing is impossible, though its administration really brings an eventual case of damaged reputation, for people fell into careful attention not only by test-men but also by everyone in their surroundings who looks with constant suspicion. This certain aspect may be seen as a strong point of the claim and a direct negative effect of drug testing. Nevertheless, there are numerous advantages of mandatory drug testing, naturally, in the case of apparent and proofed people’s participation in drug consumption. Researches of the issue represent somewhat contradictory information about advantages of drug testing for people in the workplaces as well as for people in prisons. The case is that there is a direct correlation between drug consumption and men’s working ability: “… drug abuse causes a decrease in workers’ accuracy, efficiency, productivity, safety, and overall job satisfaction, as well as an increase in injuries, absenteeism and property damage” (GuyLaine, 1997). This is concerning the aspect of employment and working experience of people addicted to drugs. As for the prisoner populations, it appears to be extremely inventive in seeking ways and methods of cheating results of drug testing. “… self-reporting by prisoners suggests that for some cannabis users (25% of all prisoners) MDT is a direct deterrent whilst they are in custody” (Singleton et al., 2005) or that mandatory drug testing may help a significant number of inmates to give up drug consumption at all. Although, they may underline paramount importance of such tests for improvement of the situation with drug abuse, there are evident facts that prisoners just change use of cannabis for heroin or other opiates in order to mislead results of testing and avoid punishment for their illicit drug use. In such a way, it is possible to shift the figures of total percentage of drug users in a particular prison, as it takes much more time for heroin to be found in urine. A great contribution for the change of results of urine analysis for drug presence in a person’s body belongs to long-term procedure of documentation, including official request and formal confirmation of an inmate’s consent for realization of the test (Gravett, 2000). In such a context there is some time for swinging the process of misleading testers by unreal results. Anyway, greatly positive figures manifesting decrease of drug use by people in custody “…in addition to indicating that MDT is a deterrent, may also indicate the creative ways prisoners are able to avoid detection”(Matthews, 2007). Consequently, mandatory drug testing may be seen as a positive contributor for improvement of drug consumption by people, with taking into consideration the fact that there are particular ways of its results changing for representation of a picture profitable for imprisoners unwilling to be punished for illicit drug use. In view of the above said, there is a reasonable claim of necessity of mandatory drug testing to be applied in schools, workplaces, prisons and other establishments for overall control of the drug consumption and distribution issue. In fact, availability of different harmful substances sharpens development of human foibles and leads people to turn into addicts. Somehow, this very fact needs to be under constant control by the means of mandatory drug testing, which is able if not to decrease drug use universally but at least to deter the scales of drug distribution. All around, there is the common ground between two claims, namely: the necessity of mandatory drug testing for confirmation of people’s good reputation. Considering the fact that there no place for large errors within the procedure of drug analysis (except human factor), men do not need to be afraid of passing through such tests, if only they are really uninvolved. In other case, mandatory drug testing may help to indicate persons who need help and appropriate treatment on their way of rehabilitation for prosperous healthy future. To sum it up, drug use, abuse and misuse are challenging threats of nowadays, which must be controlled. One of the possible ways of governmental control is mandatory drug testing that may be applied in schools, high educational establishments, workplaces and prisons for deterrence or decrease of drug abuse. The Annotated Bibliography Anonymous. Mandatory Drug Testing Violates Rights. USA Today, Aug. 1996. The work represents the issue of drug testing and its aftereffects for reputation of prospective teachers and current employees. The anonymous writer underlines possibility of improperness of drug testing. Gravett, Steve. Drugs in Prison. Sage Publications, Oct. 2000. The author depicts the role of dangerous drugs in people’s life emphasizing on drug misuse in prisons and its tackling by different governmental methods. Among them are ways of drugs prevention, mandatory drug testing, and drug treatment programs, which are practiced today and are planned for the future. GuyLaine, Charles. Mandatory Drug Testing in Employment. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses,1997. GuyLaine’s work underlines the necessity of drug testing of current and prospective employees for avoiding of the future disadvantages for a company. Provides numerous ways of tackling with different aspects of the problem. Matthews, S. Mandatory Drug Testing. Dictionary of prisons and punishment. Devon, United Kingdom: Willan Publishing, 2007. Matthews parallels between drug use and reasoning for imprisonment with further drug misuse in custody. Describes cases of illicit drug consumption and represents methods of drug testing giving the fact that visible decrease may prove not only MDT’s role of deterrent but also creativeness of prisoners. Singleton, Nicola, Pendry, Elizabeth, Simpson, Tracy, Goddard, Eileen, Farrell, Michael, Marsden, John, and Taylor, Colin. The Impact of Mandatory Drug Testing in Prisons. 2005. The work reflects the state of drug use in prisons and before imprisonment. The research shows changes in drug abuse in prisons under the influence of MDT emphasizing the fact that most MDT’s effect is short-term. Works Cited Anonymous. Mandatory Drug Testing Violates Rights. USA Today, Aug. 1996. Retrieved June 16 from: http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy2.apus.edu/docview/214517597?pq-origsite=summon&accountid=8289 Gravett, Steve. Drugs in Prison. Sage Publications, Oct. 2000. Retrieved June 16 from: http://yw6vq3kb9d.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:book&rft.genre=book%20item&rft.title=Drugs+in+Prison%3A+A+Practitioner%27s+Guide+to+Penal+Policy+and+Practice+in+Her+Majesty%27s+Prison+Service&rft.au=Steve+Gravett&rft.atitle=Mandatory+Drug+Testing&rft.date=2000-01-01&rft.pub=SAGE+Publications+Ltd&rft.isbn=9780826451293&rft_id=info:doi/10.4135%2F9781446217054.n5&rft.externalDocID=10_4135_9781446217054_n5%C2%B6mdict=en-US GuyLaine, Charles. Mandatory Drug Testing in Employment. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses,1997. Retrieved June 16 from: http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy2.apus.edu/docview/304399439?pq-origsite=summon&accountid=8289 Matthews, S. Mandatory Drug Testing. Dictionary of prisons and punishment. Devon, United Kingdom: Willan Publishing, 2007. Retrieved June 16 from: http://search.credoreference.com.ezproxy2.apus.edu/content/entry/willandpp/mandatory_drug_testing/0 Singleton, Nicola, Pendry, Elizabeth, Simpson, Tracy, Goddard, Eileen, Farrell, Michael, Marsden, John, and Taylor, Colin. The Impact of Mandatory Drug Testing in Prisons. 2005. Retrieved June 16 from: http://prb.sagepub.com.ezproxy2.apus.edu/content/53/1/81 Read More