Steal This Urine Test: Fighting Drug Hysteria in America

by Abbie Hoffman, Jonathan Silvers

Both a serious and satirical response to mandatory drug testing in the workplace, this book addresses the reliability of various testing procedures, discusses misconceptions concerning urine testing and its constitutionality, and offers ways to beat the test

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Drugs

272 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 1987

About the author

Abbott Howard "Abbie" Hoffman was a social and political activist in the United States who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies"). Later he became a fugitive from the law, who lived under an alias following a conviction for dealing cocaine.

Hoffman was arrested and tried for conspiracy and inciting to riot as a result of his role in protests that led to violent confrontations with police during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, along with Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner and Bobby Seale. The group was known collectively as the "Chicago Eight"; when Seale's prosecution was separated from the others, they became known as the Chicago Seven.

Hoffman came to prominence in the 1960s, and continued practicing his activism in the 1970s, and has remained a symbol of the youth rebellion and radical activism of that era. In his 1980 autobiography, Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture, he described himself as an anarchist.

Reviews

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought-provoking. A coworker--who actually IS a card-carrying member of the ACLU--lent this to me around the second time we had employee random drug testing. Drug testing for cause or pre-employment makes perfect sense to me; my employer tells me that random testing is Constitutional but it remains difficult for me to agree. If I hadn't been trained as a chemist I might be more comfortable with the testing if not the legality, but I'm skeptical of minimum-wage lab techs' ability to get the test right and I do NOT want to lose my job because some punk messed up my test--or, as 60 Minutes documented a tech doing long ago, mixing ten urine specimens together so he could get done sooner, then failing all ten individuals because of one guy's drug use.

[ren ! · Rating 3 out of 5]

had me in the first half. often gets redundant midway through once he's made most of his points. i love the discussion of how the war on drugs demoralizes drug users (and how it's illogical to assign mortality to drugs, as they are just objects). great points on how drug testing is a form of surveillance culture as well.

[Justin Bregoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dilute and substitute

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite dated, but still a fun read.

[Chipgraycastle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is somewhat dated but the most interesting point for me was the concept that a drug testing company's effectivness was measured by the positive results rather than the accuracy by most people.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this before 9/11. I wouldn't agree with it as much now as I did then.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this when I first arrived in Boston. This would have been 1987-88. Soon after I read it I saw Abbie at Boston University. That was a wild crowd.

It made sense at the time.

[Missy]

Good, have an autographed copy of this !!!