Just think this job is huge and all depends on one single drug test! Yup, that’s just how scary that clutch can be. Reminds one of an unannounced pop quiz for a subject had never even made time for. I mean it, these drug test appear to be such minor things, barely a bottle and some science, but have the capability to decide major milestones in your life. So let’s dissect this a bit more, shall we?

Think of a busy lab with all those scientists wearing white coats, holding pipettes like conductors wield baton sticks. In there your sample is analysed using methods that have names as tough as rackets for unknown sports, chromatography and immunoassay— the kind of stuff one would envisage seeing on a Hollywood movie poster. Tests like these look out for anything from the common ones of marijuana and cocaine to rare entities like some meds that you consume. However, there can be problems in this too, like the convoluted web of false positives. Remember the myth of poppy seed bagel! People can wait to read that on a medical journal. However, it’s all funny till you have to explain a wrong drug intake because of what you had for breakfast, to the HR.

And so, amidst all these vocabularies what good will come out of my drug test? Why firms believe that drug tests are highly important for a safe and healthy atmosphere. Safety issues, liability concerns—oh they are (un)consciously endless on why it can be done. They usually fret about the risks of an intoxicated forklift operator more than the person leaving finger marks on the staffroom kettle. Nobody wants Fred from accounting who’s downing two pots of coffee every morning, experiencing caffeine withdrawals. But let’s stay for a minute because there is always another side of picture.

Drug Testing isn’t just plain dull paperwork and a sober wait to pass your exam. Under all those samples, there are life stories. People who have been affected by someone else’s habit or even their own. It’s not just the cup of pee you just proudly handed over. How do we balance compassion with caution? Maybe someday employers will say, “Gary, you’re a great designer and deserve better health. Let’s see how you’re doing and what help we can offer you,” rather than politely shut his desk.

Thus the dialogue must flow on. Many who believe in opposite ends, are calling in their own views as to how drug testing should smoothly sink in today’s society world. Be it the alert guard of a safe work place or a keen-agog spectator, but this cumbersome little exercise affects more than just some figures on a bubblegum-coloured outfi. Should we discuss it more openly then? I hear transparency never hurts even when we’re discussing a matter as unclear and complicated as what all goes inside our trunk.