os.path.join is working as documented. See http://docs.python.org/library/os.path.html#os.path.join

"If any component is an absolute path, all previous components (on Windows, including the previous drive letter, if there was one) are thrown away, and joining continues." ... "This means that an empty last part will result in a path that ends with a separator."  So, to have the path end with a separator, use an empty string rather than '/' as the last component.

>>> import os
>>> os.path.join('/','Users', 'nad')
'/Users/nad'
>>> os.path.join('/','Users', 'nad', '')
'/Users/nad/'