Do pre-employment drug tests infringe on personal privacy rights?
When employers are hiring they need to find the person or people that fit for the job the best and one of
the ways of weaving out the candidates is a drug test. An employer or business needs to be aware of their
employees using any drugs so they can perform the best to their ability and the way to do that is through drug
tests. While there are ways to do drug tests properly, it is not an infringe on personal privacy rights because
businesses need to make sure they are bringing in someone who will be sober and able to work to the best of
their ability and represent their company positively.
Lisa Guerin, a J.D., and writer at Nolo, discusses that there are guidelines that companies and bosses need
to take when admitting drug tests but they are perfectly legal and fair when hiring an employee (Guerin). She
explains “the applicant knows that such testing will be part of the screening process for new employees (for
example, because the job application said so or because the employer’s online job posting stated that a drug test
would be required)…all applicants for the same job are tested similarly, [and] the tests are administered by a
state-certified laboratory” (Guerin) giving rules that need to be followed to make it a fair and legal way. With
these things, it is completely fair for a drug test and if the applicant feels it is an infringe on their rights than
