Bobby Jindal signs bill letting employers drug test hair, expanding detection window to 90 days

[TexasTowelie]

Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune

Gov. Bobby Jindal signed a bill Friday (June 5) that lets employers in Louisiana drug test employees' hair. The window for detection with hair testing is about 90 days, compared to about two or three days with urine tests.

The sponsor of the legislation, State Rep. Paul Hollis, R-Covington, called hair samples the "the gold standard" of drug testing.

Hollis said language in the current law already allows for drug testing of hair, as well as blood and urine. But the 1997 statute is silent on the accreditations required to actually process the results of hair tests, he told the House Committee on Health and Welfare at an April 22 hearing on the bill.

House Bill 379, which has now been signed into law, opens up the option for companies to test hair by putting in place the necessary framework to legally drug test hair samples by requiring the College of American Pathologists to provide accreditation for the diagnostic facilities allowed to perform the testing.

Read more: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/06/hair_drug_test_louisiana.html

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Article published June 06, 2015 at 4:29 PM so it falls within the 12 hour window for LBN.

[vlakitti]

1. Go very far away, Jindal, and then keep going

This guy is a real police state freak and a despicable human being. What's the point of all this?

[get the red out]

4. Punishment

As much punishment as possible for anyone he can hurt.

[SoapBox]

2. Start with all in the Legislature...

Man Up, Pukes...lead by example.

[47of74]

28. And make sure to test Jindal too.

[maindawg]

3. Why

Do they rush to throw away their civil rights ? While they wrap themselves in the dont tread on me flag?

[Archae]

5. Hair drug tests are unreliable.

https://www.aclu.org/news/hair-tests-unreliable-and-discriminatory

[Cryptoad]

10. they have,,,

1.4 million lawyers on retainers to defend all these BS Laws they pass knowing they will not pass constitutional muster .... spread the joy!

[Va Lefty]

6. mean spirted and hateful... that's who they are

[MillennialDem]

7. I don't use drugs - not even pot and I hate laws like this (or even having employers allowed to

drug test you).

Why?

First of all I do believe it is another person's choices when they're off the clock. If they want to get bombed out of their mind, that's the business.

Second, for me the only thing drug testing can lead to is false positives which means more tests for me to keep my job... best case scenario.

[HooptieWagon]

8. Lots of bald employees soon?

[madville]

13. No hair for a sample is typically

Considered a failed test. That's how the railroads do it these days, they use hair testing primarily now.

[Helen Borg]

38. There are other hairy regions... :)

[hobbit709]

9. Friend of mine failed a hair follicle test for amphetamines, which he doesn't do.

It failed to detect the weed that he smokes.
took three months of bullshit before TPTB left him alone.

[Hulk]

11. Following the mental process of these pea-brained ass holes....

...I would guess that drug addicts roam the streets in Louisiana, and nobody is safe with all the addicts being taken over by their addictions. It must be terrible to live in a land where so many are under the influence of drugs, and the whole world is going down the shitter.

Thank God for this little fool, who single-handedly will test and destroy these human zombies that are controlled by their addictions to drugs and uncontrollable crime and threat to the community of God fearing, moral, righteous persons on the hill.

Holy sweet Jesus....strike this dumb shit down NOW!

[safeinOhio]

12. I'd like a law where I can test politicians

with a polygraph to see what they are lying about.

[christx30]

40. Would do no good.

Have to have some kind of truth as a baseline.

[Ed Suspicious]

14. I'd keep a bald head.

[greymattermom]

15. vacation to Colorado?

So now will they outlaw vacations to locations where drug use is legal? No flights from New Orleans to Denver?

[cosmicone]

16. I don't have a problem with this. n/t

[Reter]

19. I can tell by the avatar and sig

n/t

[progree]

32. LOL. Good one! nm

[napi21]

17. WHY?????

I always thought the reason for drug testing was to insure safety in the work place, or to insure you weren't hiring a druggie when done before employment. I have to believe a hair test is more expensive than the std. urine test, so what are they trying to accomplish?

[Journeyman]

21. "Drug tests" are used to classify people, especially women. . .

Once they've got your urine or blood, or in this case, your hair, there's nothing to stop them from conducting whatever tests they wish to run. So they use it to determine if women are using birth control, or are pregnant, or have entered menopause (which can have an immediate effect on potential advancement), or to learn what prescription drugs someone is using (the better to know what medical conditions they may be inflicted with), or even -- for a slightly higher fee -- to learn what potential someone may have for developing any of a number of debilitating diseases (correctly or not), and thus determine if it is a good investment to hire or keep them given the effect they may eventually have on the bottom line of health care and insurance.

So many potential abuses, so little effective safeguards. Yeah, they want to "keep the workplace safe," but they also want to protect their bottom line. And they don't care how many lives may get needlessly crushed in the process.

[RKP5637]

26. Excellent point! Some of the worst travesties in history start with do-gooder premises

concluding in laws that are eventually morphed into horrific ... case in point, biological data banks.

[progree]

18. "compared to about two or three days with urine tests" - I thought it was a month for pot. nm

[TexasTowelie]

20. It varies by drug.

Cocaine is detectable in urine for only 2 to 3 days.

[Ruby the Liberal]

29. I smoke occasionally

and not much a day when I do - maybe 2-3 hits. Last year I did an experiment out of curiosity - I bought THC testing strips from amazon to see how long this stuff lingers as it is absorbed in fat, not water soluble. It took 5 weeks for me to pee clean. That was great information to have, but really discouraging as to what it says to the window of discrimination I'll face if I decide to change jobs some day in the future.

[hollowdweller]

36. We tried this

My fried usually smokes a few hits on Wed and then on the weekend maybe once a day.

Took 10 days to be totally clean.

If she took a couple hits on Friday night the test would be borderline on Monday and clean on Tuesday.

Went to a party and smoked all evening on a Sat and that took 5 days to show clean.

She did the first pee of the day and didn't drink any water or anything to give worst case scenario.

[progree]

42. Two callers to Thom Hartmann show were ranting and raving about "The Stuff" or

"The Liquid Stuff".

2 callers to Thom Hartmann said they passed drug tests after using it, both said 2 X they've passed drug tests with it. Something about how it hides or gets rid of marijuana / its metabolites in the bloodstream. 3/12/14 show

I don't know; myself, I haven't had cannabis since about 1980 or so. I have a close friend though who deals with this issue.

[alboe]

22. Ridiculous

Why don't they put cameras in your skin to see if you're doing drugs while you're at it? This is ridiculous.

[CANDO]

23. My profession is subject to random as well as regular testing.

And lately it's been through hair sampling. I offer up my armpits. And they snip away!

[fredamae]

24. How is it relevant

to Safety-both public and workplace?
Testing with-in a 90 day window post smoking a cigarette, cannabis, drinking alcohol etc, etc, etc....Will NOT Improve safety!
All this is no way relevant to consumed substances whose effects only last for a few hours at best.
Cannabis does not metabolize out of your system for sometimes 6 Weeks post use but the effects are Gone with-in 4 hours (typically for smoked-longer for drinks/edibles)

So what possible improvement to public/workplace safety does he expect from such an Expensive endeavor?
This goes too far, accomplishes nothing and is in violation of Constitutional Rights, imo.
If Any lawmaker was truly Serious about Safety..then they would implement Impairment Testing Standards.
Science tells us........Consumption of substances is NOT the Only Public/Workplace Safety Hazard.

[Ruby the Liberal]

30. Sleep deprivation worries me WAY more than

occasional, after-hours/weekend drug use.

[fredamae]

31. Yes....

as are diseases, sick children/loved ones, back-pain/migraines etc, "life stressors/worries" (money typically), adverse reactions to prescribed medications, chemo-therapy, Death, Birth, Divorce, Marriage.....all of that and More cause distractions.
If one is distracted one is not as alert, there-fore safety is reduced.
Impairment Testing picks up All forms of "not operating at 100%" issues.

[Novara]

25. Testing hair is much more expensive than urinalysis

Bobby must have had lunch with a couple of lab owners with deep pockets.

[valerief]

33. Bingo! That's the whole story in a nutshell. nt

[tymorial]

27. Clearly, Jindal and the legislative republicans have never walked the quarter after dark

If they had then perhaps external contamination might actually cause them to reconsider such a ridiculous law expansion.

[valerief]

34. I'm seeing a lot of bald employees in Louisiana in the future. nt

[hollowdweller]

35. People getting fired for smoking pot at home, fired for facebook posts, birth control, politics.....

We really need a workers Bill of Rights that expands those protections to the private sector


At one time the Bill of Rights protected us but now so much is contracted out or farmed out to private companies that our privacy and stuff is way more in danger in the workplace than by the gov't.

[hollowdweller]

37. Would be interesting given LA's chemical industry jobs

If we tested employees on a regular random job for levels of toxic chemical exposure that could potentially impair job performance. But that would be socialisim right??

[Helen Borg]

39. What if one is a member

of the Church of Cannabis?

[JCMach1]

41. What if you have a severe poppy seed bagel habit?

These laws are truly invasive of privacy...