Tag: war on drugs

I talk a lot about the war on drugs and why it’s messed up. But can I also mention that the fight again prostitution is pretty absurd, too. Shouldn’t we regulate prostitution and worry about health issues, human trafficking, and quality of life concerns instead of wasting police resources arresting people for committing consensual acts?

I wrote about my drug test a few days ago.

Tonight I asked my students if they had ever been drug tested. Approximately 2/3 of my masters students (n ~ 55) and all of my undergraduate students (n ~ 30) have been through a drug test. Every single one. That shocked me.

It also bothers me. It also bothers some (but by no means all) of my students.

I’ve been a little fuzzy on the topic. But thanks to a reader, I’ve learned a bit.

Remember when marijuana used to be legal in Alaska? What ever happened to that?

Well here’s the story, best I understand it.

In May, 1975, in Ravin v. State, the Alaska State Supreme Court ruled that possession of weed by an adult, at home (in small quantities) is protected under the a privacy clause of the state constitution.

It appears that the use of marijuana, as it is presently used in the United States today, does not constitute a public health problem of any significant dimension… It appears that effects of marijuana on the individual are not serious enough to justify widespread concern, at least as compared with the far more dangerous effects of alcohol, barbituates, and amphetamines.

The Alaska state troopers said the ruling was “horrendous” and vowed to keep enforcing drug laws under federal statutes.

Of course the sky didn’t fall.

But in politically conservative Alaska, where alcoholism, “creeping” and incest are more major problems, the legislature re-outlawed marijuana in 2006. Of course you can’t “outlaw” a supreme-court-decided right any more than you can legislate for slavery or against the First Amendment. Here’s to the right of privacy! I wish it were in the Bill of Rights.

So more recently the 2006 Alaska law was appealed… but without a victim (has nobody in Alaska been arrested for such a crime?). It’s a rare legal strategy, but one that makes sense to me. Why should you have to arrested before the court decides a law is unconstitutional? But no matter. The Alaska Supreme Court punted the decision on the grounds that it isn’t “ripe.” But regardless, the Ravin case decriminalizing marijuana still stands.

Scott Christiansen of the Anchorage Press writes:

The Alaska Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the Ravin decision, even to the point of limiting a law passed by a vote of the people, instead of the state legislature. In a 2004 case, Noy v State, the court explained that even though ballot initiatives can make law, those laws are on par with laws made by the legislative branch and still subject to constitutional tests in court. (And a collective, “Well, duh” was heard throughout the north.)

I hate drug tests. I think they’re dumb and ineffective as policy. But mostly I object on moral grounds. I don’t think it’s your boss’s business what you do at home. I don’t think it’s the government’s business what you do at home.

And I think it’s a shame that the least harmful illegal drug is the easiest to pick up. Somebody drinks a bottle of whiskey and takes LSD and smokes a little weed on the side. And all we detect and care about is the joint?

I don’t think police should be buying illegal drugs and I don’t think surgeons and airplane captains should be high at work. But I don’t think drug testing prevents any of that. Tests can be beaten. But it’s in nobody’s interest–certainly not those who profit from drug tests–to advertise that fact.

I also object because there’s something unfair about requiring drug tests for low-level jobs. It’s not right. Good forbid a stocker at Home Depot smoked weed and watched TV on his day off! I’m sure Home Depot’s corporate board isn’t drug tested. Corporate boards are never drug tested.

When I ask my students if they’ve had to pee in a cup, the majority–the vast majority–answer yes. Drug tests are now a normal part of most people’s lives. Is that the country we want to live in?

I was drug tested many times in the police academy. I didn’t like it. But fine. It does seem somewhat more reasonable to test police officers. When I quit the police department, I assumed I’d never be drug tested again.

Last week I started volunteering at a certain museum here in New York that takes out old boats. I like historic boats and I like being on the water.

They’re making me take a drug test!

I was thinking of taking and passing the test and then quitting on principle (because if you just refuse to take the test, everybody assumes you’re just on drugs). But I got a little less huffy when I learned it’s not the museum’s stand. It’s a Coast Guard requirement. If a boat has paying customers, all boat crew (paid or not) has to be drug tested. I still think it’s dumb, but I don’t see my moral righteousness affecting Coast Guard policy.

Tomorrow, for the first time in nine years, I get to pee in a cup and hand my urine to some stranger. And for this I have to pay $45. Only then will I be allowed the privilege of volunteering my (drug-free) labor.

If I get stage fright, perhaps I can relax myself by thinking about what it means to live in the land of the free.

Update:September 9

I was on time for my 5pm appointment. Of course I drunk a lot of water before, both so I could piss and also to lessen the chance of a false positive. So my bladder was bursting when I got there. And then I waited. And waited. So I decided I needed to relieve some pressure. A “demi-pee,” as my friend called it. That’s always fun. I had to do this twice by the time I was seen at 6:15pm.

The toilet bowl was filled some magical blue substance that prevents dilution with water from the toilet bowl. I’m also told not to run water from the tap.

I could have easily brought in a fake sample. I could have easily turned the water tap just a little bit. It’s not like the nurse really cares.

But I don’t cheat. I fill the open cup above the 60mm line (you don’t actually need much urine) and leave the bathroom and hand the sample to the nurse. She poors my piss into two vials, seals them, and makes me sign the form I get a receipt and I’m good to go.

It’s all very degrading and time consuming. I guess that’s why those that can only make those under them take the test.