Michael Siegel reports that “A U.S. District Court judge for the District of Massachusetts ruled last week that there are sufficient legal grounds for a lawsuit filed by a smoker against The Scotts Company to proceed. The plaintiff — Scott Rodrigues of Bourne, Massachusetts — was fired by Scotts after failing a urine cotinine test.”
Siegel continues (emphases added): “The company instituted a new policy in December 2005 by which it fires smokers. At the time the policy was announced, employees were given one year to quit smoking completely or be fired. Scott Rodrigues claimed that he was fired from a job with Scotts that he held for just a few weeks after a required urine cotinine test turned up positive for cotinine. As I reported here in December 2006, Rodrigues filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming that the company unduly violated his privacy and civil rights.”
No kidding: being forced to pee in a glass to see if you have taken a legal substance; being fired from your job because you have taken a legal substance. One day you will be fired because you failed some sort of test for chocolate, or beer — or whatever else these health fanatics define as bad for you.
What a man consumes and how he chooses to enjoy life is his very personal business. It is not the boss’s business. It is not the state’s business. It is not even momma’s business once we’re out of grade school. The Nazis at Scotts want a staff made exclusively of the Master Race.
Scotts follows the lead of health insurance company crooks who charge more for smokers on the basis that smokers’ health care costs more. That is a con and a rip-off. The insurance companies point to well-cooked statistics to rationalize higher rates while research suggesting that smokers cost less (such as a recent study from Holland) is conveniently ignored. Smokers are presently a politically correct target for price gouging. Scotts takes this a step further. The firm deserves every ounce of trouble, litigious and otherwise, it suffers in consequence.
We wish the best of luck to Scott Rodrigues. His victory would be precedent-setting. Smokers and other targeted groups must now up the ante on their oppressors. Every political, legal, and social avenue to make Hell for the Health Reich should be pursued. The Healthists have moved miles beyond the line that should never have been crossed. We are going to put the bastards back where they belong. It’s going to take a lot of pushing and shoving. We are more than ready for that.
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