Part 10 of 16
We need to stop drug testing. Period.
What the hell are we doing allowing raging alcoholics to run our governments, yet if you smoke a little weed, you can’t work for a bank or the Defense Department?
“Yes, we know, 72 percent of our staff drink way too much, 5 percent are in rehab, but that’s okay. It doesn’t matter—can’t have any weed.”
Where is the common sense in this? In what universe does that make sense when the mission is to protect networks and data? Get over it.
For people who have ADD or ADHD, in the United States we prescribe methamphetamine. It’s highly addictive, really bad for the body, but it’s okay to take doctor-prescribed speed in order to get a job and function with ADHD in almost any organization. If they live in one of several states, medical marijuana is legal and alleviates many of the issues with none of the nasty and destructive side effects of the so-called ‘acceptable,’ prescribable ADHD drugs. But the U.S. government and large companies still won’t hire these people because they have ‘drug free’ work places. Can’t hire them.
We should all have a huge problem with that.
Shouldn’t drug-free mean, “don’t take drugs at work or don’t come into work completely stoned out of your mind ?” A smoke-free workplace means you can’t smoke cigarettes on premises. To me, it’s pretty clear we have clustered ourselves with a century old fear and misinformation.
If we can do “don’t ask, don’t tell” when it comes to sex, and we can do don’t ask, don’t tell when it comes to religion, I fail to see why we don’t have don’t ask, don’t tell when it comes to drug use—if it doesn’t affect the job.
After a keynote for DHS, some reporter said, “Winn wants heroin addicts running our networks …” Idiot. That’s not remotely close to what I said or meant. Some people function better than others, after imbibing various levels of ‘intoxicants’. The three-martini lunch… do people still do that? I hope not. Isn’t that what Happy Hour is for… before you jump into your car and move into the high-speed lane?
By the way, 95-plus percent of people I speak with, including HR and lawyers agree with me. They are just too scared to take it on, and want to keep their jobs.
Am I politically incorrect? Hell yeah! It doesn’t mean I’m wrong.
Part 9: Binary trust is just an excuse to say ‘No’
Part 11: Put ’em out to pasture (ageism)
Winn Schwartau is the CEO of The Security Awareness Company, the author of Information Warfare, Pearl Harbor Dot Com (Die Hard IV), and the upcoming Analogue Network Security.
- Hiring the unhireable: We can’t do it–It’s just too damn hard - September 10, 2015
- Hiring the unhireable: What to expect from the unhireable once you’ve hired them - September 8, 2015
- Hiring the unhireable: Perks for geeks - September 4, 2015
