Drug Testing

In an effort to prevent substance abuse and its consequences, drug testing has become increasingly frequent in workplaces, schools, and athletics. More recently, drug testing has been extended to being a condition of access to social benefits such as welfare and unemployment benefits, but it is complicated by results showing that few test positive. For athletes, drug testing targets performance-enhancing drugs as well as illegal drugs, whereas in the workplace and the social benefits realm, drug testing targets illicit drugs, with marijuana being the most common drug for which people test positive. Opponents of drug testing have argued that it violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Thus, balancing a desire to prevent the abuse of illicit drugs and performance-enhancing drugs with privacy concerns ...