AFFIRMATIVE – WORKPLACE DRUG TESTING

AFFIRMATIVE — WORKPLACE DRUG TESTING — SIGNIFICANCE 272

WAR ON DRUGS CAUSES HUGE HARMS

THE DRUG WAR IMPLICATES OUR SOCIETY ON MULTIPLE LEVELS COSTING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, FEEDING RACISM, AND BREEDING VIOLENCE

Duke, Susan B., Law of Science and Technology Professor, Yale Law School, Winter, 1995, Connecticut Law Review, "Commentary: Drug Prohibition: An Unnatural Disaster"//lxnx-Sj

Let us first consider the costs and consequences of the "drug war," an approach to the drug problem that was invented and proclaimed by President Richard Nixon contemporaneous with our defeat in Vietnam. One war was a convenient substitute for the other. Unfortunately, the drug war would prove to be even less winnable than the war in Vietnam. In 1973, Richard Nixon declared "all-out, global war on the drug menace." n14 From an original budget of less than $ 100 million per year, Nixon's drug budget grew enormously. The federal drug war budget is now more than 130 times that, at $ 13 billion. Our violent crime rates nearly doubled in the same period. n15 The simultaneous ascents in drug war budgets and crime rates are not coincidental. n16 The [*575] drug war causes crime--far more than most people realize. It also wastes huge sums of money, contributes to the destruction of our cities, spreads disease, destroys our liberties, tears our families apart, foments racism, and imposes most of its costs on those who do not even use illegal drugs.

THE WAR ON DRUGS FUELS A POLICE STATE THAT INCARCERATES MORE PERSONS FOR LONGER PERIODS OF TIME THAN ANY OTHER NATION

RUDOVSKY, DAVID, Senior Fellow, University of Pennsylvania School of Law, 1994, The Univeristy of Chicago Legal Forum, " ARTICLE: THE IMPACT OF THE WAR ON DRUGS ON PROCEDURAL FAIRNESS AND RACIAL EQUALITY"//lxnx-Sj

From the start, the War on Drugs has emphasized law enforcement and the criminal process to control and regulate drug abuse. n184 As a result of these policies, rates of arrest, prosecutions, forfeitures of property, and incarceration have all spiraled. n185 The legislative response to the drug crisis has been not only reflexively to expand powers of investigation, but also to ease the way for imprisonment, both before and after trial, often in ways that present serious constitutional questions under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

The statistics demonstrate the scope and impact of these punishment initiatives. Fueled by the War on Drugs, arrests, prosecutions, and imprisonments have increased by dramatic proportions. In 1992, there were over 1.1 million persons confined in the United States, a population that has increased three-fold in the past fifteen years. n186 The United States' rate of incarceration is now over 455 per 100,000; n187 by comparison, the rate in South Africa is 311 per 100,000. n188 In 1990, over 4.3 million individuals were under some form of correctional supervision. n189 We incarcerate more people for longer periods of time than any other industrialized nation, and our rates are ten times higher than those of Japan or any country in Western Europe. n190

THE WAR ON DRUGS NOT ONLY FAILS BUT HAS A DISPROPORTIONATE AFFECT ON MINORITIES AND ERODES CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS

Twelve years ago, President Reagan declared yet another War on Drugs. n1 Today, after the expenditure of billions of dollars on a policy built primarily on the coercion and punishment of drug distributors and users, the War on Drugs has failed to reduce significantly, much less eliminate, drugs as a problem in our society. n2 There have been scattered successes, but even with enormous expenditures of resources, the major evils associated with drug use and drug trafficking have not been ameliorated, and we continue to experience widespread abuse of drugs, high levels of violence, and disintegration of urban life. n3 To make matters worse, as I will argue in this Article, the War on Drugs has had a debilitating impact on our system of constitutional rights [*238] and on equality for racial minorities. As a result of the aggressive law enforcement component of the War on Drugs and the acquiescence of the courts, constitutional principles have been undermined.

THE WAR ON DRUGS IS PLAGUED WITH ONE SIDED GOVERNMENT AUTHORED INFORMATION ABOUT THE HARMS OF DRUGS FROM WHICH POLICIES ARE SHAPED

Mechelle Zarou, December, 1999, " THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY: DRUG TESTING BY EMPLOYERS IN ALASKA", Alaska Law Review

Alaska Law Review//lxnx-Sj*

In 1982 President Ronald Reagan initiated the War on Drugs, commenting in a radio address that "We're making no excuses for drugs - hard, soft, or otherwise. Drugs are bad and we're going after them." n181 Thus, drugs, and the fight against them, rapidly became America's prime political obsession, both for politicians and many voters. The fundamental problem with drug fighting as a political issue is that "tough on crime" sentiments such as President Reagan's often preclude rational debate on drug policy. Most critical examination of the extent of the drug problem in the United States was conducted by government-sponsored commissions or task forces, which had an admitted agenda to "go after" drugs. n182 Thus, there has been an extreme lack of reliable, unbiased information on drug use. This unreliability stems from a refusal to identify the governmental source of much of the information on drug use available to the public, a failure to define the terms used in reporting results of surveys, the failure to explain [*323] the conditions under which such surveys were produced, and the failure to distinguish among various drugs. n183