Sign of Progress

I hate drug testing. I have always hated drug testing. My personal opinion is that drug testing is a violation of basic civil rights because it assumes guilt and requires us to prove our innocence. In most work places refusing a drug test has the same or worse consequences as failing one.

Massachusetts may have done away with this problem.

Pot law could snuff out testing policy

A voter-approved law reducing possession of small amounts of marijuana to a civil offense threatens to unravel drug testing of police and other public employees, the Herald has learned.

The law, which goes into effect Jan. 2, prohibits government agencies and authorities from enforcing any punishment for pot possession with a fine greater than $100, according to the Massachusetts Police Chiefs Association, and defines possession so broadly as to include traces of pot in blood to urine to hair and fingernails.

Berkshire District Attorney David Capeless predicted the new law has far-reaching consequences for even school bus drivers and MBTA train operators, who could point to the law and say they can only be fined, not fired, for marijuana offenses.

You are supposed to panic now. They tried really hard to get you to panic so the least you could do is pretend.

OH NOES! Now we have to fire people for not doing their job instead of busting them for going home and slouching on a couch with a bag of chips and a copy of Pineapple Express. I'm terrified.

And it gets worse.

New pot rules may allow having hashish

Massachusetts police may no longer be able to arrest people for having a small amount of hashish, because a new law that decriminalizes possessing up to an ounce of marijuana could apply to other drugs with the same psychoactive ingredient, according to guidelines issued today.

New Flash! Hash contains the same active ingredient as marijuana because it is made from marijuana. In other news, heroin has the same active ingredient as opium because it is made from opium. Should a minor be treated differently for possession of vodka versus possession of beer? But why would a minor want vodka or beer when they could have pot or hash?

Stillman also said teens may gravitate toward pot because the penalty for having an ounce or less is far less than the penalty for having alcohol.

So the law even benefits minors. $100 fine and it is treated like a parking ticket with no permanent record.

Of course law enforcement bitches about it making their job harder. From what I have gathered, law enforcement thinks the easiest way to perform their job is to make everyone into a criminal so they can arrest everybody. Buck up, little boy blue. Do what the rest of the American work force is doing and stop caring. A little pot might help.

A tip of the hat to Massachusetts for passing a sufficiently vague and far reaching law that is a step in the right direction. But can they keep it?