Is this the answer?

[DC2]

My wife was reading in Newsweek today about how Scott's Miracle Grow conducts random urine tests for nicotine and fires employees who fail. Needless to say my outrage was through the roof after hearing that, as I feel that would be like firing someone for drinking coffee. Anyway, it got me to thinking.

We know that most of the world has grown to think of nicotine use as a very dangerous, unhealthy, and immoral addiction.
We know that we need to change that perception if we are to have any hope, but how are we going to accomplish that?

Education is the key, but it is going to take forever at the rate we are going.

What we need is to get people to pay attention to us, and to care about what we have to say.
There are two ways I think we can actually do this.

If a government entity were to either fire someone for nicotine use, or decline to hire them for nicotine use, which I don't think has ever happened. But if it did, they could be sued for discrimination. The other way would be for a private company to fire someone for nicotine use when they either were not informed of, or did not agree to the conditions beforehand. If so, they could be sued for wrongful termination or something.

Such a lawsuit would get some serious attention I would think.


Have I not thought this through correctly?
And is there no examples of this taking place anywhere yet?

 

[Turnkeys]

I'm not certain about your government example, but for the private sector, one large factor would be what state it was in. Washington for example, is an "at will" state, meaning employers can fire employees for pretty much any reason. We work "at" their "will". :/

 

[CJsKee]

For federal government:

"There are twelve prohibited personnel practices, including reprisal for whistleblowing, which are defined by law at § 2302(b) of title 5 of the United States Code (U.S.C.)

. . .

(10) discriminate based on personal conduct which is not job-related and does not adversely affect the on-the-job performance of an employee, applicant, or others;"

About PPP

For states:

. . . 7. tobacco is a legal substance. Can I be fired for smoking away from work?
This depends on the state you live in. Thirty states have "smoker protection laws" which make it illegal to discriminate an employee for the use of "lawful products outside the workplace," (understood to refer to cigarettes) or for smoking in particular. In these states, you cannot be fired for legally using tobacco. However, many states don't have these laws, so employers are free to fire smokers, even if their tobacco use is solely outside the workplace. For more information, see the state smoking laws page.

Smoking and the Workplace - Workplace Fairness

One question I've had, based on the fed's "prohibited personnel practices", does it apply only to federal employees, or would it also apply to those who receive federal funds such as Medicare? I don't know...

 

[NCC]

It's been at least 12 years since an employee of the local Chrysler dealer told me the company had a zero tolerance for cigarette smoking. He cited as an example that if an employee was seen by the wrong person, smoking in a bar (example given) that the person would be immediately fired. Big difference between government and private corps though. I've been fired from jobs for no reason other than that the boss didn't like me ... not the reason given at dismissal, but you know how that goes. Does a private company have to have a reason? I mean, they can always trump something up. And, unless you've got the resources to hire a good attorney, you're knocking on doors resume in hand ... right?

 

[Zal42]

Does a private company have to have a reason?

No, but hiring someone is expensive and so most businesses won't fire anyone for no reason at all. If the reason isn't the employee's fault (such as they can't afford you), that's called being laid off.

 

[TennDave]

Years ago, when I bought life insurance, the inside of my cheek was swabbed to see if there was nicotine on/in the cells to see if I was a smoker. I think the insurance industry is still doing this.