I had to take a drug test once for a development job. This wasn't recently but it was after marijuana had been legalized in several states (but not the one I was in at the time). I reached out to the recruiter who basically said "we have employees who are contracted out to the state. It's a state law that we need to drug test our employees. The law does not require that we report the results or even read them."
In general I don't think drug testing for certain jobs is a bad thing. What jobs get tested, how often, and what drugs get tested for is something reasonable people can disagree about.
I’ve had to do it for low tier stuff when I was younger, like telemarketing. It’s an unnecessary invasion of privacy. If I showed up too stoned to speak coherently fire me for being incoherent. I had to do it when working with some heavy equipment too. The argument doesn’t even work there though. I’d not be hired if I smoked pot two weeks ago, but if I took shots with breakfast that would be fine?
I don’t even do drugs and I rarely drink. I just think your performance on the job should be all that matters. If you drink, sleep poorly, etc, and it affects your performance, that should be observable and reacted to accordingly.
I would not have objected to vision tests and reflex tests, that sort of thing, to be licensed to use potentially dangerous equipment.
> The law does not require that we report the results or even read them.
The best move then would be, of course, be to consume a large amount of marijuana the night before you take the test. If they end up not hiring you because of it, well, do you really want to work for someone who will just straight up lie to your face?
Well, I think it's unlikely I passed the test, and I worked there long enough to get promoted twice. I believe that they didn't care about the results and just had to go through the motions.
In general I don't think drug testing for certain jobs is a bad thing. What jobs get tested, how often, and what drugs get tested for is something reasonable people can disagree about.