The University Of Alabama Has Started Drug Testing Fraternity Members For No Reason
We just did a whole column about why the University of Alabama sucks, and if we had known that Bama has been drug testing fraternity members for no reason sooner, it probably would’ve been the centerpiece of that article.
From AL.com:
Beginning this academic year, UA has been quietly drug-testing active members of multiple Greek organizations, including the Alabama chapters of the prominent Sigma Nu and Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) fraternities, in the first run of a mandatory screening regime that some experts say is the boldest and most extensive in the nation.
Six current and former members of the impacted chapters told AL.com over the past month that they now require their members to submit to periodic urinalysis at a UA facility in order to maintain good standing with the organizations and the school. The university confirmed that it is drug-testing members of some Greek organizations, though it declined to say how many or which ones. In addition to testing urine, the university has played a role in testing samples of some fraternity members’ hair for evidence of drug use over a period of months.
What. The. Fuck.
This is the most blatantly obvious case of profiling I’ve ever seen. Why in the world does a fraternity member have to have his piss checked for quaaludes to remain in good standing with the university but a GDI can go around smoking all the peyote he wants? In what way is this okay?
Many chapters around the country require drug tests of their members for them to remain in good standing with the local fraternity, but it is unprecedented for a university — a state-funded university, no less — to mandate drug tests for a group of hand-selected students who have done nothing wrong.
I highly recommend giving the whole article a read, as it does a good job of describing the program and its negative effects, like how it has pushed fraternity members into using more dangerous, harder-to-detect drugs like Xanax.
This is bizarre, unconstitutional, and just a flat-out horrendous program that needs to be ended..
[via AL.com]
Imagine the raging hard on libs would get for this story if they required black people to be tested “to remain in good standing with the university”
10 years ago at 5:09 pmDATS RAYCIS MANE!
10 years ago at 6:13 pmLow water mark
10 years ago at 6:42 pmOr welfare recipients
10 years ago at 10:43 amI have to believe that they’re on a “double secret probation” type deal. SAE and SNU at Bama do some fucked up shit so I highly doubt drug testing was a random pre-requisite. Much more likely that they got out of something they should have gotten busted for by implementing “self-imposed sanctions” and a type of resolution for a conduct violation that most fraternities would get iced for.
10 years ago at 4:44 pmI also know SAE’s at other schools who were told as newbies that their nationals/alumni might randomly drug test them. Most of the time it never happened and when it did it was with a good prior warning, easy to fake, and really only implemented so SAE doesn’t become uninsurable as a whole
10 years ago at 4:47 pmBut that doesn’t cause as much internet buzz as “zomg SAE’s get drug tested and sack tapped for 00000.00000 reasonzzzz” so I understand
10 years ago at 10:00 pmGameFrock, SAE does hair follicle testing so it’s pretty hard to fake that bud
10 years ago at 9:19 amOr god forbid we drug test illegal mexican immigrant before they cross our border or syrian refugees. #MakeAmericaGreatAgain
10 years ago at 6:56 pmNot quite
10 years ago at 9:52 amOnly one person making America Great Again here, fuck off buddy. Neither of those groups are making it past the Trump Wall
10 years ago at 10:42 amThis absolutely fucking unacceptable. No university under any circumstance has any right to drug test, specifically to single out any group such as fraternities. This is a violation of the 4th and 14th Amendments
10 years ago at 5:10 pmThey use the excuse of giving up your rights when you enter a university organization and if they control it then you have no rights… Going rouge sounds better and better all the time…
10 years ago at 5:25 pmRights outlined in the “Bill of Rights” are “inalienable” meaning that they can never be taken away unless they are through due process of law. I don’t forfeit my right of free speech just because I walk into your shitty classroom. *YALE
10 years ago at 6:14 pmTechnically, they are only inalienable when it comes to the actions of the federal government. With the addition of the 14th amendment, as PGT said, they apply to state governments. The reason I say this is because people are really picky when it comes to applying the 14th amendment and whatever they believe in, choosing to ignore one of the rights while enforcing it to the extreme for others.
10 years ago at 11:02 amIf said universities take Federal or state dollars, I should be inclined to state that they must adhere to the same standards as the government.
10 years ago at 7:42 amNot condoning drug use, but in a truly free society doesn’t a free man have the right to put WHATEVER he wants into his body? I just think it’s crazy that we are locking people away in cages for life, and taking away their right to a peaceful and prosperous life for something as trivial as smoking dope or dropping LSD. How can this happen in a free society?
10 years ago at 8:54 pmHint: it can’t.
Some of it is for public safety. I agree that people have the right to do whatever the hell they want, but I don’t want someone who has a bad acid trip to start attacking people. Obviously some drugs (Coke, weed) aren’t as dangerous to the public (unless it’s cut with something) and some are too addictive that lead to overdoses and death. But if you’re being locked away for a drug that makes me hungry then that’s some bullshit
10 years ago at 8:58 pmBrother, If Johnny wants to drop a tab he should do it. If Johnny tries to eat your face then there is already a law that will punish him if he decides to go ahead and see if your cheeks taste like Duck Confit.
I don’t think it’s worth locking adults away for redundancy’s sake…
10 years ago at 9:26 pmMeth, in any facet is a horrendously dangerous drug. Where we draw the line on which drugs are and aren’t illegal should be a reflection of society’s morals. I think weed should definitely be legal. However I don’t think society would accept anything “harder.”
10 years ago at 10:16 pmOkay I one-hundred percent agree that meth is awful and very dangerous. I think societal morals would be in a much better place if we, the people, started acting with compassion to our fellow man and brother as opposed to marching him into a cage at gunpoint. Why can’t we treat addiction in a more civilized way?
10 years ago at 10:31 pmBecause treatment like you’re talking about would cost even more than prison. It’s also not any more effective as far as sustained rehabilitation for addicts in that neither rehab nor prison is very effective.
It’s amazing how liberal this place has become. It seems like it happened in just a couple years. Weird.
10 years ago at 10:35 pmAlso, my stoner friend, don’t act like prison is so I humane. A large portion of the world would kill to live in the conditions our inmates live in.
10 years ago at 10:37 pmI might not agree with you, but I sure as shit respect your ability to formulate an intelligent argument. Cheers.
10 years ago at 10:59 pmDamn let me meet this Johnny guy he sounds like a fun guy
10 years ago at 10:30 pmAre you fucking kidding? You think someone who is tripping balls is just gonna go nuts and attack you, but you’re completely fine with someone getting blown out? You probably shouldn’t be touching any drugs if you’re that stupid.
10 years ago at 4:11 pmWhen I visited UA for the DKE convention in 2011 they talked about this policy for their chapter. At least back then, it was self-enforced and it was very focused on preventing drug problems. If you tested positive, you only had to stay clean for 30 days to show you weren’t an addict and then all records of your positive test were destroyed. I’m not sure if this is the same policy but I know for a system that’s had to deal with deaths from drug abuse this seems very fair. Dr. Witt has been very pro-Greek life and I doubt he would implement anything that was an unfair burden and not for the greater good.
10 years ago at 5:11 pmI can’t count how many times I’ve heard people say they are doing something “for the greater good,” only for the program to make the problem worse.
10 years ago at 5:22 pm^TFM
10 years ago at 5:41 pmClaiming the problem you are about to create is for the greater good TFM, trying to fix a problem and making it worse TLibM.
10 years ago at 6:11 pmYeahhhhh thats not constitutional at all, especially from a publicly funded university. Lawyer up boys
10 years ago at 5:11 pmFuck man, I legit almost cried. It’s just sad to think about the world our children will grow up in. One where the constitution is nullified and they feel like they have to piss in a plastic cup or risk being expelled or questioned. We need to fix this shit, so our kids can grow up free.
10 years ago at 6:08 pm#StandwithRand
10 years ago at 7:34 pmI like Rand Paul’s national policy. He would have my vote, if it weren’t for his foreign policy, which is a little impractical in my book.
10 years ago at 7:39 pmMaroon, believing only Congress can declare war, not the president (like it says in the Constitution) and not spending trillions fighting other countries’ civil wars isn’t practical?
10 years ago at 9:22 pmForgive me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that the president declares war but only with Congress’s approval?
10 years ago at 10:13 amGood question, but the Constitution says that the power to declare war lies with Congress. If you remember the days after Pearl Harbor, FDR’s famous “day in infamy” speech was actually directed at Congress asking them to declare war because he had no power to do it himself. We haven’t had a formal declaration of war since World War 2. The president has the ability as Commander in Chief to repel a sudden attack if Congress can’t react soon enough, but apparently that has evolved into whatever monstrosity we have now where the president can invade any country he wishes.
From the Constitution:
[The Congress shall have Power…] To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
Abraham Lincoln said that:
“”The provision of the Constitution giving the war-making power to Congress, was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons. Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This our Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood.”
If you don’t feel like reading my summary, feel free to search War Powers Clause on Wikipedia. You will also see that the captures on land and water seem to be in direct contradiction of Obama’s (and I assume previous presidents as well) policy regarding war prisoners at Gitmo and in general.
10 years ago at 10:55 amPlease hang around
10 years ago at 8:29 pmI’ll comply when LaQeefa the gender studies major and her pink weave comply
10 years ago at 5:12 pmSpelling like I got to Alabama, Jesus Christ
10 years ago at 5:13 pmRacial stereotypes are awesome.
10 years ago at 9:58 pmI hope they don’t do this at my school or we are FUCKED.
10 years ago at 5:13 pmStay calm, champ. I don’t think they would drug test at a high school
10 years ago at 5:30 pmhttp://www.wilx.com/home/headlines/Lansing_Catholic_High_Instituting_Mandatory_Drug_Testing_123032133.html?device=phone&c=y
All my friends at this school transferred into my HS senior year when they enacted this bs. Hair follicle test at the beginning of every semester.
10 years ago at 12:59 pm#FratLivesMatter
10 years ago at 5:15 pmI’m sorry I thought this was America.
10 years ago at 7:07 pmSo I assume all organizations/student groups that have to do with the university also have to be drug tested? Faculty? Administration? If I was getting drug tested in this obvious case of profiling I would want the fucking president to take it right next to me… This is some next level PC bullshit.
10 years ago at 5:23 pmAnd another thing. You know this won’t show up on the news… But if the university chose to test a black student, this would be a national crisis.
10 years ago at 5:28 pmAlso the amount of college athletes that get away with doing drugs is a little more ridiculous than you’d think. You’ll never see this happen to a sports team. Singling fraternities out is bullshit
10 years ago at 7:34 pmI can only imagine what Johnny football got away with at A&M…
10 years ago at 10:35 pmFrom the inside, My house was one of the first at Alabama to implement this new drug test . It is causing more harm than good. We’ve argued tirelessly about it. Even West coast and Northern Brothers with legal marijuana perscriptions are being penalized for failing a drug test for cannabis. As awesome as Alabama greek life is this is the epitome of it’s dark, controlling, sketchy underbelly.
10 years ago at 5:25 pmTime for an oil change
10 years ago at 5:26 pm