“A Chemical Indiscretion”

From Barabara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed:

“If it weren’t for the drug test, I might have stopped looking right then and there, but there has been a chemical indiscretion in recent weeks and I’m not at all sure I can pass…my indiscretion involved the only drug usually detected by testing, marijuana” (125).

This passage made me lose a lot of respect for Ehrenreich.  I am sorry, but what on earth is a 50 some year old woman doing taking marijuana?  For the most part I found Ehrenreich to be reasonable, but this is ridiculous.  She even seems to justify her behavior, acting like drug tests are unreasonable for employers to give.  I’m afraid that I think it is perfectly reasonable for employers to give drug tests.  Drugs can affect an employee’s ability to work.  Why should they hire someone who has obviously used a drug at least once?  If they’ve used it once, who says they don’t use it all the time?  Ehrenreich’s little “indiscretion” made me doubt her judgment, and re-evaluate some of the claims she makes.