The Blogger Prepares For His Drug Test

“Give me a little drink from your loving cup.
Just one drink and I’ll fall down drunk.”
-LOVING CUP by the Rolling Stones

My fellow INSEAD bloggers have described some of the demeaning experiences they’ve had to endure during the employment recruiting process. I thought that nothing could top the stress-test interviews of investment banks and consulting firms– I was wrong. I’ve been asked to submit to a drug test. When I told my classmates at INSEAD, the European MBA participants were really shocked. The Americans on the other hand, were quite familiar with the practice. It seems that asking potential employees to urinate into a cup is an accepted business practice in the U.S. And so for the last week I’ve been stressing out– Should I take allergy medicine when I start sneezing? Should I eat that poppy seed bagel? Do I risk being dinged because some inaccurate test labels me a drug addict? In a country where the sitting president is a former cocaine user and alcoholic, does it seem fair to screen out job candidates who occasionally use marijuana? Or maybe drug testing is employed precisely because of the President’s past affinity for Bolivian Marching Powder.