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Moral Technology: The Political Agenda of Random Drug Testing

NCJ Number
136348
Journal
Social Justice Volume: 18 Issue: 4 Dated: (Winter 1991) Pages: 122-146
Author(s)
P O'Malley; S Mugford
Date Published
1991
Length
25 pages
Annotation
Policies of random drug testing of employees rest on a moral perspective and are designed to impose, by means of civil law and the employment contract, the view that being an American means being sober, reliable, and conforming to particular views about drugs.
Abstract
Nevertheless, proponents of random drug testing offer scientific and rational accounts that claim to offer nonmoralizing approaches, although the available research does not support arguments regarding drug abuse's effects on workplace safety and productivity. Therefore, random drug testing is an example of an effort at social control that uses the rhetoric of efficiency and risk management, but that is actually a deeply moral crusade against drug use itself. Notes and 47 references