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 Symposium-The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780

On August 29, 2007, a grease fire in West Roxbury killed two members of the Boston Fire Department.  According to media reports of the autopsy results, the firefighters were under the influence of alcohol and drugs at the time of their deaths, and presumably, when they responded to the fire that claimed their lives.  In the wake of this tragic accident, public and political support for mandatory, random drug testing of safety-sensitive personnel has grown in Massachusetts.  House Bill 2210—An Act Relative to Public Safety Employees (House Bill 2210)—addresses that increased concern, authorizing random drug and alcohol testing of all publicly and privately employed public safety personnel within the Commonwealth.  The current debate over random drug testing of fire department personnel echoes a debate that took place almost twenty years ago over drug testing of Boston police officers—a practice the Supreme Judicial Court denounced in its deeply divided Guiney v. Police Commissioner of Boston opinion. . .