Just Say No

From The Center for Cognitive Liberties:

Wired Magazine reports on a new drug-detection patch under development by SpectRx. “For the monitor to work, employees first have to have four microscopic holes — about the size of a human hair — burnt into the outer layer of their skin by a handheld laser… The oval patch houses a miniature vacuum pump that sucks out interstitial fluid, a clear, water-like fluid that surrounds cells in the body.”) When a drug is detected, a miniature transmitter sends out an alert signal.

Users of recreational drugs aren’t the only ones who should be concerned by such an innovation. Though it’s only a step or two more voodoo than testing people’s hair or urine for signs of whether they’ve engaged in a consensus-challenging visionquest, it’s also a step or two more invasive.

The better our technologies get at doing what we ask them to, the better we must get at refusing to submit to the ones we don’t want in our lives, or our bodies. Workers should never have submitted to drug testing in the first place.