The Pointlessness of the Workplace Drug Test

[eridani]

Obvious truism is obvious

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/30610-the-pointlessness-of-the-workplace-drug-test

This industry has relied on superficially intuitive arguments for drug testing: It’ll make employees use drugs less often and it’ll ensure a more efficient workplace. But those arguments have some significant holes.

First, as Frone writes in his book, there isn’t any proof that drug tests reduce drug use. In fact, a stronger deterrent effect might be that casual drug users choose not to work for companies that will test them. (Those employers might be missing out: More than half of Americans said they have tried marijuana, which is a big pool of talent to ignore.) “It’s become sort of a game,” Lewis Maltby, the president of the National Workrights Institute, told The Washington Post. “Employers know that it doesn’t mean anything. Anyone who smokes pot will just stop for a few days. It’s an empty ritual that nobody wants to be the first to give up."

There’s also the concern of spending not-insignificant amounts of money to pinpoint a very small portion of the working population. “For some employers the cost to find a single drug user can be high,” says Frone. And identifying those workers might be misguided to begin with, considering that “a positive test result cannot determine use or impairment at work and [that there’s a] general lack of evidence that drug testing has an impact on performance or safety,” Frone says.

Also, drug testing’s binary, drugs-or-no-drugs mechanism fits better with the delineations of legality that were common when Reagan signed that executive order. Today, marijuana’s legal status is a confusing patchwork of local laws, and legally-prescribed painkillers are more and more frequently abused. Both of these drugs can show up on tests, but it’s not clear what some employers should do after detecting their presence. Five years ago, The New York Times reported on the story of a woman who was fired from her job after testing positive for a painkiller that her doctor prescribed. Other workers have been terminated under similar circumstances, even when the medication in question was meant to treat job-related injuries.

[nilesobek]

1. I am a prime example

that there are ways to beat these tests. So far, I'm 4-0 in clean drug tests that I faked using synthetic urine, but, there is no accounting for how I passed a more rigorous medical examination, including blood work and another urine sample I did not have time to tamper with and use the regular magic.

Maybe they don't care and want me as an employee.

[Egnever]

5. If you were only using MJ

I think there are a lot of employers that only screen for amphetamines and other "harder" drugs.
I was hired quite a few times when there was no way I would have tested clean for MJ. I believe they pay for each drug they screen for and many don't care about MJ.

[Recursion]

2. It's more of a "do you have your shit together?" test, like a credit check

Employers don't actually care how good your credit is, they just want to know if you have your shit together enough to pay your bills on time. Similarly, they don't actually care if you toke, they care if you don't have your shit together enough to be clean for the two weeks before you apply for the job.

For that matter it's like requiring a bachelor's degree for office jobs. You almost certainly don't need anything you learned in college, but it's a kind of social signalling to make sure you're "the right kind of people".

[nilesobek]

3. Its social engineering.

I'm an outsider in this scenario. The state absolutely owns so many people on probation and parole for non violent crimes its stunning. I thought I had it bad piss testing for this job but these ex prisoners are regularly harassed and, frequently "re-offend." They are constantly drug testing in the intermountain west states and use it for any excuse to screw us already underpaid workers.

There are other issues at work here too. No medical for workers, extreme overtime (me), and numerous other factors.

[Ghost in the Machine]

4. "Anyone who smokes pot will just stop for a few days." Ummm, yeah, that doesn't work at all...

The metabolites from THC from one joint can stay in your system for up to 30 days. Someone who smokes daily can take months to clear their system. THC is stored in fat cells. When you sweat, it comes out of your pores, but is re-absorbed into your body if you don't shower immediately. I know from first hand experience...

About 30 years ago I was going for a good job at a great company in Miami. At the time, one of my best friends was a Coptic preacher from Jamaica who grew and smoked ganja for religion. We smoked every day for a few years. When I knew I was going to apply for this job, I quit smoking for about a month and a half. I wouldn't even be in a room or car with someone smoking. I went in for my drug test, fully confident that I would pass. A little while later the doctor walked back into the room, looked at me, and asked me "How do you even function?" I said "what do you mean"? He said "You have enough THC in your system to keep an elephant stoned for a month!" I told him "I haven't touched *anything* in 6 weeks!" He said "you must have been smoking a LOT, and some GOOD stuff at that." Needless to say, I didn't get the job.

Fast forward to 2003... I had quit smoking in Feb. '03 on my 40th birthday. In Sept '03 I was seriously injured in a construction accident that left me disabled. The doctors gave me some 10mg oxycodone for pain. I'd take one and within 30 minutes I was nodded out. Keep in mind now that I hated taking pills, wouldn't even take an aspirin for a headache for years before that. I finally had major neck surgery in 2004. I stayed knocked out from the morphine drip because I hit that button every time I woke up because the pain was so bad from the posterior multi-level lamenectomy with expansile duraplasty. A week later, when I was released from the hospital, I was given a scripit for more oxycodone. I stayed knocked out for a month!

I wound up having to have a 2nd surgery 2 months later because the back of my neck was so swollen it looked like I had a football stuffed in there. The Neurosurgeon had missed a spot where my cerebro-spinal fluid was leaking. Another week in the hospital, then another oxycodone script. After two weeks at home, basically comatose from the pain pills, I weaned myself off of them and started smoking pot again. It helped with the pain, and I could actually function... which was critical because I was a single father with 2 pre-teen kids. When I went for my follow-up appointment, the doctor asked me if I needed more pain meds. I said "No", and showed him the bottle I still had, with only about 30 out of 120 of them gone. I told him that "I have found a more 'natural' pain reliever and I can function on it." He just smiled and said "this is off the record, but marijuana is THE BEST pain reliever known to man. I have no problem with you using it." I kept the bottle of pills for the days/nights when the weed just wasn't enough and they lasted me over a year.

Fast forward again to 2009... the marijuana was getting to be ineffective and I decided to try pain management. I quit smoking for 2 months, went to a doctor, and *still* tested positive for THC. That's when that doctor told me about how it stores in the fat cells and so on. We made a deal though... he said he would write me some hydrocodone for a month, and one refill, and at the end of those 2 months he would drug test me again and if I failed, I was done. I gave him my word that I would not touch anymore weed. I got my script filled, came home, called a friend and asked her to come over for a few minutes. When she got here I handed her a 1/2 ounce of weed and said "Early Merry Christmas!"

I was in pain management for about 4 1/2 years, in which time I went from hydro 10s to being on 30mgs of roxicodone every four hours and finally 40mgs of oxymorphone every 12 hours, with 2 roxi 15s for break-through pain. I was too dependent on them to the point that I was addicted because I guild up a tolerance for things very quickly. I decided to call it quits with the opiates, and went through hell from withdrawals until someone told me to smoke a joint. I did, and I'll tell you that I was shocked! The withdrawal pains and nausea went away before I finished the first joint! I could actually feel tingling in my brain as my brain waves changed, then the wave cascaded down my body and I felt like a different person! I felt like the normal "me" after almost 5 years. I could tell a difference in myself, my attitude and demeanor when I was on the pills. Everyone else noticed it too.

Sorry for such a long post, but the point is that NO, a pot smoker can't just stop for a few days and pass a piss test....

Peace,

Ghost

[nilesobek]

6. I was able to pass

by using the synthetic urine, heating it up to 99 degrees and then using those chemically activated hand warmers to keep its temperature constant. Then just use a rubber band to wrap the hand warmer around the urine sample and put it in my boot.

Frequently, the bosses use the drug test threat as a stick. There is never a carrot. I use marijuana as a general pain reliever, anxiety control and I just like to get high. I noticed a less fanatical drug testing attitude on the East coast. They never even broached the issue there...but on the West coast...I don't know if its religion or something, but people are making fortunes opening drug testing labs.

[Ghost in the Machine]

7. Here on the East Coast (actually I'm in Tennessee), they drug test for jobs, if you go to mental

health services, if you are in pain management or if you are on probation. I passed a drug test in Georgia once, a day after smoking, by drinking a half of a jar of pickle juice that night and the other half before I left that morning for the test.

They know to look for fake urine now. I just read in the police blotter a few weeks ago where someone was arrested for trying to falsify a drug test here. I don't know if it was at probation or a pain clinic. One pain clinic I went to for over 2 years had a nurse standing IN THE BATHROOM WITH YOU when you went. After the 3rd time, I looked at her and said "I feel like I'm going to have to start bringing you flowers if we're going to keep meeting this way!" She got a good laugh out of that one.

Peace,

Ghost

[nilesobek]

8. I'm going to remember the pickle juice idea if you don't mind.

Stuff with vinegar in it might mess up their test. I feel like I'm in some Gattaca society that is obsessed with wanting to check me out. I don't have an important job, its a hard job because I'm working for a sadistic landscape contractor...my question should be to them is: "Why can't I be high while doing all this laborer stuff?"

[Ghost in the Machine]

9. I feel you, my friend.. I was a Superintendent for a commercial/high-rise metal roofing company once

upon a time. At a company meeting one day, the owner of the company started talking about drug testing. Another Superintendent and I both said "you'll lose most of your work force if you do that, including US! How do you think those guys get out there and walk on a 3 or 4 inch beam 15 stories in the air?? We need something to calm our nerves down with. Hell, you have guys here in the office that come out to our job sites and won't even get up on a 2 or 3 story building with us." He dropped the subject real quick!

My nephew does landscaping down in Central Florida, and he stays buzzed all day!

Peace,

Ghost

[nilesobek]

11. Oh yeah Florida must be a hot but nice place for landscaping.

Drug testing might be necessary for airplane pilots and such who have important jobs. I'm cleaning pond scum by hand and bucket 4 feet deep and they don't want me high, oh no. Tomorrow is fun day I get to go to Washington State and the dispensary. I don't like to spend a lot of money and its nice to smoke the exotic stuff I found. Its way better than the usual stuff. Its like 15-18$ a gram, 2 joints for me, totally legal and worth it even though I get can some for much less.

[Ghost in the Machine]

13. Well I hope that you enjoy your legal outing!

I just read a little while ago that a Bill was introduced in the Tennessee Legislature that would legalize the possession and casual exchange of up to 1/2 ounce of marijuana.... and it was introduced by Republicans!!! The Democrats *NEED* to get in front of this issue with a quickness!

Peace,

Ghost

[nilesobek]

17. Well I just got home from a 14 hr day.

And I had a great day thank you. I didn't have much money but I bought two one-gram joints, one called Amnesia the other Sage. I also got a gram of Time Wreck. I smoked the amnesia on my break and forgot a garbage can at one of the job sites. I was high all afternoon and the heat didn't effect me like it did a couple days ago when it was 108.

[Ghost in the Machine]

18. I'm glad you got to enjoy it! I am looking forward to the day when I can do that, too. I'm 52 years

old, but have been a very vocal advocate for Legalization, Taxation and Regulation, just like tobacco and alcohol, since I was 16 years old! Growing up in Miami, FL, I smoked my first joint when I was 9 years old! I remember when a "nickle bag" was 1/4 oz. and a 4 finger baggie, stuffed, was $20 - $25 dollars.

As I stated before, we now have a Bill in the Tennessee Legislature that would legalize the possession and "casual exchange" of up to a 1/2 oz. The only thing I hate about it is the fact that it's REPUBLICANS THAT ARE SPONSORING THE BILL!!! I hate to give Repubs credit for *anything*, and wish the Democrats would jump to get out in front of this issue.

A while back ago they had a Poll in The Tennessean (a newspaper out of Nashville) where the choices were A: Keep it illegal... B: Legalize for medical purposes only.... and C: Legalize it for everyone over 21. Over 80% of respondents voted for C! It's past time for the politicians to listen to the voice of the public that they are supposed to represent. I hope to see full legalization in my lifetime. As a single father, I told my kids when they were 16 & 17 that I would rather see them smoke a joint than to drink alcohol any day of the week. Knowing that you can't stop kids from doing what they want to, short of keeping them locked in the house, I also told them if they were at a party somewhere and got too wasted to drive, I did not care what time it was, call me to come pick them up and I would... without any further consequences, no griping at them, no questions asked. I'd rather do that than to have them risk their own lives, or the lives of others, by driving drunk.

Peace to you and yours,

Ghost

[nilesobek]

19. Yeah I guess I'm pretty

lucky to be living in a border town in Idaho right on the Washington border. I was able to stay legal today because I had a driver and smoked up in Washington State. If I had done it in Idaho, I'd be in violation of the law.

[tanbrown]

10. Interesting

I am only familiar with drug testing as a one-time thing used by employers as a precondition for hiring.

In that case, the drug test is meant to weed out a specific group of people: those who have so little self-control, or such a bad addiction, or such a who-gives-a-fuck attitude toward the job they are applying for, that they can't or wont lay off their drug hobby long enough to pass one damn test. IOW: they are weeding out the bottom-of-the-barrel applicant with the lousy work ethic. I have no problem with that.

Some jobs require ongoing sporadic testing in special circumstances (for example, impaired physicians and nurses can be rehired after rehab if they submit to random testing - which seems a reasonable expectation to me.). I wouldnt be surprised if pilots and cops and CIA agents have random testing. Again, that seems reasonable. I don't think average jobs like fry cook or lawyer or computer-guy should require random testing after employment. Do they?

As for the issue of prescribed opiates: that isn't hard to fix. An employer will accept a doctor's letter that Applicant X has been prescribed Drug Z. If Applicant X doesn't bother to produce a doctor's letter, she isn't very motivated to get the job.

I am one of the many people who has taken drugs. I can pass a drug test. And anyone who can't? Doesn't deserve to have my job.

[Ghost in the Machine]

12. Many States also require a drug test if you are in a work related accident. If you fail, they can

deny you Worker's Compensation Benefits. I have a friend who is a retired commercial airline pilot and he said they were tested randomly, as well as when they came off of vacation time or any extended leave time. I don't know about lawyers, as many work for themselves, but I know that if I ever *needed* a good lawyer, I'd like to know that he was sober and had his full attention on my case at the time.

Peace,

Ghost

[gollygee]

16. A lot of insurance companies require that too

If your company has liability insurance for construction, the insurance will expect the person who caused an accident to be tested before they pay out.

[eridani]

14. Sure--for anything but marijuana

The other drugs they test for clear out in a few days, and anyone should have the discipline to deal with that. You can be stone cold sober and still have MJ that you smoked a month ago show up in the test.