Legal Profession Should Be Drug Tested Like Everyone Else 28/5/2007

Legal Profession  Should Be Drug Tested Like Everyone Else
 

It was reported in the Sydney Morning Herrald of May 16th that Melbourne QC and former chairman of the National Crime Authority, Peter Faris, says he has information suggesting there is a drug problem in the legal profession in Victoria and NSW.

Seeing the practice of law is such a vital  field, why  not then randomly drug test lawyers as happens with  people involved in other trades?.

Crane drivers and  professional footballers, for instance, are  drug tested,  does the legal profession consider they are of  less important social status?

Furthermore, a motorist  can be  forced to do a random  breath test  for the safety of other motorists, so why should  lawyers  object to submitting to random drug tests for the protection of their clients?

Pursuing  a court case  requires  alertness,  powers of instant recall and attention to detail,  which you don't exactly have  if you just  spent a weekend  snorting cocaine.

Cocaine and methamphetamine use is said to be substantial among the wealthier sections of the community  who can afford such drugs. Is it too much to suggest that this  select group might  include lawyers?

If no lawyers use drugs,  then they should  have nothing to hide.

How would society feel if a serial killer were found innocent and let free to roam  trhe streets because a Crown Prosecutor or some lawyers in the Attorney General's  Department made a hash of the Crown's case  due to being under the influence of drugs?

Only the arrogance of the legal profession who might think they are above the strictures of the rest of society could stop  this sensible proposal being implemented.

Then again another problem might be that most members of parliament who could put statutes  in place to enforce it are former lawyers themselves.