Libertarian Quiz: Would You Drug-Test Lawmakers?

Matt Welch | July 15, 2009

That's what a couple of Lake Arrowhead residents are trying to get onto the California ballot:

Dorothy Cummings and Gary Ellis have been approved by the secretary of state to try to qualify a ballot measure that would require all state legislators to be tested for the illegal use of drugs and the "habitual use of alcohol."

The idea is to prevent any lawmaker who tested positive from getting paid as – or even acting as -- a legislator until he or she completed a substance abuse program. And the lawmaker would have to foot the bill. Anyone who tested positive a second time would forfeit the elected office.

I think most of us here would agree that if you mandate drug tests for anybody, lawmakers should go to the front of the line (particularly lawmakers who mandate drug tests for anybody else). But is the juvenile satisfaction worth the bar-lowering?

Link via Rough & Tumble.