Scenario for Case Study on Drugs and Drug Testing: Mmafan believes the union did nothing more than "protect the lazy, the incompetent, and the screw-ups." This complaint is actually the root of a powerful and thoughtful ethical argument in favor of drug testing because drug-free workplaces maximize employee performance. Fill out the argument:

Whose obligations are served by drug tests?

What are those obligations?

Name an ethical theory that forcefully supports the use of drug testing in the workplace. What's the reasoning?

Case Study as Followed:

John Pemberton came up with the original Coca-Cola recipe in 1886 and sold it out of Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia. Advertised as a medicine, the drink was supposed to cure headaches and impotence.

Coke certainly delivered a rush. Brewed to contain a massive dose of cocaine, the drink was virtually guaranteed to succeed. Not surprisingly, many over-the counter medicines started boosting their appeal by including the coca leaf extract. By the end of the century, however, public attitudes began turning. Rather than a cure, cocaine came to be seen as a ruinous addiction. Coke responded by radically cutting the cocaine in the drink, and by 1903 there was none, though the product still contained (and to this day contains) flavoring from the same coca leaf that earlier provided the drug. Finally, in 1914, the Harrison Act effectively outlawed the sale and distribution of cocaine both on its own and as an ingredient.

The other side of the original Coca-Cola jolt came from the kola nut, which added a slightly bitter taste to the drink, and lots of caffeine. ("Coca" corresponds with the coca leaf and cocaine, "Cola" with the kola nut and caffeine.) That additive also fell out of the public's favor, though not to the extent or depth of cocaine. In 1911, the US government sued to get the substance removed on the grounds of its pernicious effects, but failed (United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola). The next year the Food and Drug Act defined caffeine as "habit forming" and "deleterious," and required that the substance be listed on Coke's label.