ive American efforts to internationalize the American drug problem as a more or less typical American effort to blame others for their own problems. The growing argument in the US over proposals to legalize drug use is evidence which, to many people, justifies this contention of an attempt to shift blame.3 Similarly, the controversy over drug testing in the workplace lends credence to the contention that the US is not really serious about con trolling drug abuse.4
3A. Nadlemann, "Making the Case for Legalizing Drugs," The Washington Post, 10 December 1989, A20.
4M. Bender, and C. Reid, "Court Bans Pre Employment Drug Testing," Publishers Weekly, 24 June 1988, 16.
3 The US permits a major demand for a product to exist within its own borders, and then attempts to control supply.5 Some half hearted educational and rehabilitative efforts are conducted to deal with the demand problem; however, few serious deterrent penalties are imposed.6 In response to American demand for drugs, the drug producers smuggle the products into the US.
The illegal import and use of drugs to and in the US is a serious threat to American society. Rather, they are available because there is a demand for them.
DRUG TESTING IN THE WORKPLACE: THE PRACTICE
American employers have generally shown that they support drug testing in the workplace. Objections to drug testing in the workplace, however, are registered by (1) employees and civil liberties groups, who claim that the practice is an inva sion of the individual's right to privacy, and (2), in many instances, by labor unions, who tend to side with their members in disputing management's right to impose drug testing.7
Nevertheless, drug testing in the workplace in the US is extensive, with over half of the country's major corporations
7"On the Job Against Drugs," Nations Business, July 1989, 29 31; P. Preston, "Pilots Union Plans Court Challenge of FAA Drug Test Rule," Aviat...