For years, courts, employers, and employees have struggled with the issue of employee drug testing. Employers want their employees to be drug free, whereas employees do not want to submit to an...

For years, courts, employers, and employees have struggled with the issue of employee drug testing. Employers want their employees to be drug free, whereas employees do not want to submit to an invasive and embarrassing procedure. Courts want to uphold employees’ right to privacy while allowing employers to run a safe, drug-free workplace. This issue may finally have a solution. Recently, a new drug test has been developed that uses a swab of saliva rather than urine or blood. It is being implemented in several states already, including Georgia and Hawaii. This new test gives much faster results than urine and blood tests, and some experts believe that it might be more effective than urine or blood tests. The results of negative or nonnegative can be returned within 10 minutes, and employees who test negative can begin or return to work immediately. This faster process alleviates the stress and anxiety of employees who must be tested for drugs. The major benefit of the new saliva test is that it is a noninvasive test. Employees do not have to suffer the embarrassment of having to “pee in a cup”or the painful experience of having blood drawn. Giving a swab of saliva is easy. This drug test protects employees from having to undergo an invasive or embarrassing test, while allowing employers to keep their workplaces drug free. Allowing employers to drug-test their employees is very important to keeping the workplace safe and ethical. Employees who use drugs while on the job are a danger to themselves and to others and could be responsible for lawsuits against an employer. Also, employees who break the law by taking illegal drugs might engage in other illegal activity, which could also be damaging to the employer. Allowing drug testing is the best way for an employer to keep the workplace drug free. Random drug testing has been legally questionable because of the employees’right to privacy. The saliva drug test eliminates the concerns with the right to privacy and is a major step in helping keep the workplace safe and drug free.

 1. How would you express the issue and conclusion?

2. Are any of the terms the author uses to make her point ambiguous? Clue: How is the new drug test better than the old drug tests?

 3. What missing information would help your evaluation of this argument?

 4. Write a short essay that someone with a different opinion about this topic might write. Clue: How could different definitions of ambiguous words in this essay change the conclusion?