Too bloody right too, I don't want someone working with me putting my performance/job in jeopardy because he likes to get high in the evenings and on weekends.
Rather than the complete security of someone who likes a solid drink at the weekend, or enjoys a couple of bottles of wine with the wife on a Wednesday?
I think it's selfish personally to expect to be treated differently because you do take drugs. If you treat everyone with an even hand (which the contract of employment does) then it no longer discriminates as everyone is at the same level of understanding. If drugs were legal, then I'd concur that it would be unfair, however, it's entirely up to the employer to enforce, legally, whatever rules they can (within the law) onto their work force.
Agreed, I think it's ridiculous to expect different treatment, but I'm guessing you don't mean what I mean. I think it's ridiculous that people are punished for choosing a less addictive, less physically and socially damaging, less toxic drug that causes less social friction and less violence amongst its users over the drug that's not illegal because it's taxed so heavily, all because misinformation and ignorance have been used to back up the claim that one is fine and the other is wrong.
I would no more get stoned off my face the night before work than I would go on a bender until early morning, because it would seriously impact upon my ability to do my job and in my current profession it would put patients at risk. I wouldn't severely hamper my mental state with anything if I didn't have a day and two nights to get over it before I was due to work next. As it is, I used to really enjoy smoking cannabis, but I quit to safeguard my career - there's few stronger zero-tolerance policies for drug use than you'll find in NHS employment, but I find now that I drink more than I used to, and I know it's doing much more damage to me than when I used to smoke cannabis instead.
I've taken drugs, both legal and otherwise, for a good portion of my life. I've never been in trouble for it, never seen my performance at work or uni or in any other aspect of my life suffer for it. I've never committed a violent crime beyond public brawling, and the few times that's come my way it's been strictly in self-defence with people who'd been drinking. I've never driven a car while high or drunk, nor operated machinery (heavy or, more relevant to my current profession, technical) nor acted in any way that puts anybody but myself at risk. This is true for many, many more people than most of the population realises - as mentioned earlier in this thread, a third of people from whom blood samples were taken tested positive for cannabis. Considering that cannabis metabolytes are detectable in urine for about twice as long as they are in blood, that means even those tested who weren't regular users must have taken cannabis in the last 3 days, maximum. Cannabis is everywhere, and yet society as a whole has managed to avoid collapsing in on itself.
