Drug Test the Legislators Too

It was bound to happen. Every week there’s a story in the news about who should get drug-tested and why. There used to be severe questions about whether employers could require drug testing or not. But in the past 10-15 years, that has become quite commonplace and there’s not such a big fuss going on about that anymore.

On another page you’ll read questions about whether students should undergo drug testing in their schools or after-school activities. And during the past year, most of the stories around the nation have been concerning welfare recipients and whether they should be tested, who should pay for it, and whether they should automatically lose their benefits if they fail the test.

So now, at last, comes a story out of our own Columbus, Ohio in October, 2011, where Representative Robert Hagan wants to require statewide officeholders, legislators, members of Gov. John Kasich’s jobs board and all the recipients of federal bailout money to undergo drug testing and to have to pay for that testing themselves. Somebody finally said aloud what numerous people have been thinking for years.

Most people see this Democratic lawmaker as doing this just to respond to the Republican-backed bill that is calling for drug-testing of welfare recipients, a measure that is being considered state by state throughout our country. But maybe there is more to it than that.

Maybe Rep. Hagan has been reading the news around the country also, and he has seen time after time some of the saddest stories of all: the ones where the trusted officials are actually doing the crimes that they are supposed to be stopping. Maybe he read about the police chief down in Arizona whose three trusted workers were making the state safe for drug cartels. Maybe he read about the cop in Maryland who was selling drugs. Or maybe he likes the part of the Constitution that says that the ones who rule are not above the law and so they should be treated the same as everyone else.

If the bill passes, then any officials who tested positive would have to undergo treatment or else lose their jobs. It also proposes that voters should be given a means to get rid of state politicians by submitting petitions.