and no one irl even has the decency to agree with me because it’s so fucking drilled into the culture that these fucking BuNsInNesSes have a Right to do this because it’s a bSUsniEss. like oh yeah they have an office building so they definitely get to analyze my piss because they say they want to. sick fucking freaks.
preaching to the choir a bit on lemmy (or i would hope so at least) but still
Thanks Reagan. Fun fact, in the mid 80’s Reagan’s administration did a big study to show how effective drug testing in the workplace was, and how much it raised productivity. When they got the results back, it found productivity had dropped, and workplace safety hadn’t changed. The results said the program was a complete failure. They tried to bury the report and not release it. Rolling Stone magazine sued the government to get a copy, since it was made with public money, and won. They were the only media outlet to publish the results.
Happen to have a link? That sounds interesting but my Google fu is weak today and couldn’t find it.
I think this was it, but I’m not sure. Google has decided it would rather be an adservice than a search engine.
https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/why-drug-testing-bad-idea
The rest of the studies I have found say that drug-testing is simply ineffective and bad for morale.
Source ChatGPT Web Scan:
The claim about the Reagan administration conducting a study in the mid-1980s to demonstrate the effectiveness of workplace drug testing, and then trying to bury its negative results, is not supported by the available historical records.
The Reagan administration’s drug policies in the 1980s, particularly under the Anti-Drug Abuse Acts of 1986 and 1988, focused primarily on increasing penalties for drug possession, creating minimum sentences for drug-related offenses, and addressing the crack cocaine epidemic. These policies were criticized for creating a racial and class imbalance in drug-related punishments and for being ineffective in addressing the systemic causes of drug abuse [❞] [❞] [❞] [❞].
Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign, which began in the early 1980s, aimed to spread awareness of the dangers of drug use, especially among youth. However, this campaign was criticized for oversimplifying the solution to drug abuse and for being largely ineffective in preventing adolescent drug use [❞].
There is no information available in the sources reviewed about a specific study on workplace drug testing being conducted and its results being suppressed by the Reagan administration, nor about Rolling Stone magazine suing the government for its release. The focus of the Reagan administration’s drug policies seemed more oriented towards legislative measures and public awareness campaigns rather than workplace drug testing studies.
Except in military environments (which I think correlate to environments where heavy equipment is in use). https://prhome.defense.gov/Portals/52/Documents/RFM/Readiness/DDRP/docs/72208/DoD Drug Policy History.pdf