An appropriately titled “Joint Resolution ” (S 1070), would make candidates for public office and judges pass a test for illegal drugs before they could run for office.

The resolution calls for changing our state’s constitutional requirements for holding public office. Currently all voters who aren’t ex-felons or who haven’t violated election laws can serve. Sen. Harvey Peeler (R-Cherokee) has been pushing the resolution since 2006. He now claims that Tootin’ Tommy Ravenel’s coke bust shows the need for such a constitutional amendment (you surely remember that Tootin’ Tommy, our State Treasurer, was popped in 2007).

In the 2006 election cycle, Eckerd Drug Stores were Peeler’s number one corporate contributor, and pharmaceutical industry contributions were his third-ranked campaign donors at $4,800, behind health professionals and the Republican Party.

“If you can’t pass a drug test, you should not be in public office,” Peeler said in a press release announcing the resolution.

The question, of course, is whose drugs, Sen. Peeler?

What’s next? Are we going to have to pee in a jar before we can vote? If I want to elect someone who takes an occasional toke, versus the opposition who adjusts his or her mood with prescription drugs, it would seem a citizen’s constitutional right to do so.

An IQ test may be more appropriate.

Legislator wants to allow guns in State House

First-term legislator Rep. Keith Kelly (R-Spartanburg) may have the solution to partisan gridlock. Kelly has proposed a bill (H 4243) to allow legislators with concealed weapons permits to pack heat on the floor. Yup. This could really help cut down on the number of uncontested legislative seats (we’re number 1 in incumbents having no opposition).

Again, how ’bout that IQ test?