Drug Tests are Bullshit!

[rdubwiley]

Remember guys, if you want to be employed, make sure you drink alcohol, which you can overdose on easily, and is much more dangerous than weed, but if you smoke weed, don't bother applying.

[brewens]

1. I don't object so much to a pre-employment screening. I think if you

want a job working with me, I'd like to see that you could lay off the weed for a few weeks. Random testing that screws people for trace amounts are bullshit though. Nothing wrong with smoking a little hooch as long as you make it to work straight. I can tell you if I detect a problem with someone showing up hung-over, I will have their ass!

[Boxerfan]

2. It takes a lot longer than " a few weeks"...And why should I go without my medicine?

Because I can tell you with no doubt I will not be a well person without my legally prescribed medicine.

And this has gone on for far too long. In Oregon there is no legal protection for an employee when it comes to the medical use of cannabis.

So you can have a meth head or drunk pass the test easy. While a person who has chosen the medicine for his affliction that has the LEAST side effects of anything else -well you are inelligable from the get-go.

I'd love to see a competency based test Vs a pee test.

[brewens]

5. That might be the best way to deal with some "medical" weed users. In my case,

all four of the guys I know with grower cards are just stoner's. They got with the right doctor and got their prescription. I'm all for them getting to legally smoke weed but they aren't legit cases. I would suspect a pretty high percentage are people that just love to smoke pot. Four out of four is a pretty good reason for me to think that too. Being an ex-stoner though, most of my good buddies were stoner's, so that is kind of a skewed sample.

I went to work stoned for years and did a good job. I'm a black belt forklift operator and no one was safer or could even touch me for efficiency. Safer meaning I didn't break shit. I would have been even better if I wasn't baked all the time though. My job I have now, I wouldn't want to try stoned all the time. I might be okay but am sure I'd make more errors. Only testing for cause would take care of someone doing my job I suppose. That would mean getting tested if you made too many errors.

[rdubwiley]

4. Continuing on what Boxerfan said,

A better test would be reaction test, which actually test what employers should be looking for.

[2pooped2pop]

6. this is just another part of the plan

to keep liberals from surviving. You don.t catch the coke heads, the meth users or other hard drug users. You catch the pot smoker with the drug test because pot is the only onethat stays in your system.
some use hair follicle which will test positive for pot if u smoked it months ago. So I'm pretty sure if I smoked 6 months ago, 1 month ago or last night, it has nothing to do with my performance today. Pot smokers are not an employee risk unless maybe you run a brownie factory. Further if I get hurt on ur lousy equipment, I will be tested and lose my job and insurance because I smoked a month ago.
This is total bullshit aimed at people who tend to vote dem.

[niyad]

12. I am seriously surprised to see someone on this board supporting these kinds of invasive,

intrusive tests. we have become so damned conditioned to accepting these intrusions into our private lives it is sickening.

years ago, I was dropping off an insurance payment for a sick friend. I walked in, and saw the following sign "We do not tolerate use of any illegal drugs, including alcohol"

I said, "apparently you are unaware that prohibition was repealed. and, quite frankly, I would not give my business to any company that is so stupid. will be telling my friend that she really needs to find an intelligent company"

[They_Live]

14. What about you?

Last edited Sat Jun 2, 2012, 08:53 PM - Edit history (1)

Do you set the perfect example for those who work "with" you? Ever been hungover? How would your random test come back?

[brewens]

15. If their being hung-over only means they don't feel so good, fine. If they

screw up and make it a habit, they won't last long. An otherwise good worker tells me it was their birthday or something and they are hurting, I won't say anything.

I made it to work one time back in the 80's and told my boss, "I'm here, but if you have a humanitarian bone in your body, you'll send me home, because I am worthless!" He was with me the night before on my birthday and bought me several drinks though.

I then worked at a beer distributor for years and was plagued by hung-over alcoholics. It was really a glorified day-care center for the bosses children, and a couple other relatives. I put up with a couple guys that could never get or keep a good job at a competently run business these days I have a pretty low tolerance for people that can't handle their alcohol.

[Vincardog]

3. I do object so much to a pre-employment screening. I think if I

picked you out of all the available candidates as the best qualified, what you did or didn't do but were close to, is none of my business

[Politicalboi]

7. I was given a

Eyewitness pee test for no reason at ALL. They told me it was random. They could have called a nurse to do the test, but they cut out the middle man and do it themselves. Well, I have a suit against them now. Invasion of privacy. LOL! Fuck them and the horse they rode in on. I should know sometime this week if they are going to pay or fight it. They test EVERYONE that way. LOL! I don't know how they could deny it. The jobs pay $8.00 to 10.00 an hour, with no insurance. And the most incredible thing was that I passed the test.

[Ron Obvious]

8. What we consider normal now...

I have a hard time understanding that we accept drug tests as normal now. I haven't smoked anything for well over 25 years, but that's not the point. What I object to is that we think it's perfectly acceptable now for an employer to own you body and soul and to have the right to know these things about you.

I don't know of any other countries that do this for jobs other than, say, airline pilot. I've filled out applications where I had to agree to fricking lie detector tests (which are voodoo in any case).

I don't understand why people aren't outraged about this in the land of the free and the home of the 4th amendment. I sometimes think we keep banging on about being free to cover up the fact that we haven't been for some time now.

[Politicalboi]

11. I totally agree

It's the norm for your employer to be able to drug test you at their request with no cause. I smoke pot, and I should be able to smoke it however or for whatever reason I want. As long as I am not stoned on the job, it is none of their business what I do off the clock. They overrate pot. I wouldn't mind if my pilot smoked pot hours before we took off. Better than a drink, which the airport provides.

If I am pre-warned, I come prepared with synthetic urine as long as nobody is watching me, they work.

[Ron Obvious]

13. Synthetic urine

Don't forget that they test for urine temperature these days as well, so be sure to heat the urine to 98.2 degrees before submitting!

[longship]

9. Indeed, drug tests are -- mathematically -- bullshit!

IANAS (I Am Not A Statistician) but I know mathematics which I have taught at both high school and college levels.

Here's the deal of why drug testing is bad.

1. The presumption is that you want to weed out (no pun intended) those who smoke marijuana.

2. A second presumption is that the percentage of people smoking dope is small -- a safe assumption when all are subject to drug testing.

3. The accuracy of these drug tests is not 100%. In fact, it is far below 100%.

4. It is not the false negatives that are important; it is the false positives. For there lies the asymmetry in the statistics.

5. If there are few marijuana consumers in your sample -- due to your announced intent to test for that usage -- the number of false positives will overwhelm the false negatives.

This is Statistics 101. And it is this precise mathematical illiteracy which gives support to these drug use testing advocates.

They are wrong!

[xchrom]

10. i simply do not want my employer knowing what is going on on the inside of my body. period.

that goes with 'health programs', drug testing, etc.

what's going on inside of my body is none of their damn business.

[MrMickeysMom]

16. True enough.... also, consider this...

Talk about bullshit, many companies (fortune 500, major health care systems) test your personality to see if you are a good "fit"!

Institutional psychologist (yeah, I know) develop these "assessment surveys", which is an oxymoron, because you shouldn't take a survey and fail the survey, yet, if you don't fit in with the profile they are looking for.... YOU FAIL!

Now .... THAT'S a bunch of bullshit served up on a silver platter.

Institutional psychologist seem to have morphed into producing some high grade tools to enable these companies whose only wish must be to reduce the number of applications they have to deal with after weighing to the possibility of whether you can fit into their Borg collective.

[rdubwiley]

17. Yup,

When I applied to where I'm going to work in a couple of days, I needed to take a 40 question survey. It was pretty much a personality test.

[elias7]

18. THC sensitivity should be modified to detect only if used in past 1 day

Testing for benzos, opiates and alcohol will pick up use within only the past 12-24 hours. There is no reason to have sensitivity at 50 ng/ml for THC which can pick up use weeks prior. If pot were legalized, then I would imagine a stronger case could be made for changing the cut-off to a less sensitive level. As it is, there is gross inequity in such testing, considering the degree of impariment that opiate, benzo and alcohol addictions bring compared to routine pot use.

[MindMover]

19. Drug Tests are Bullshit!...... "When you fail one..."

Last edited Sun Jun 3, 2012, 01:49 PM - Edit history (1)

Otherwise, drug tests are unfortunately, a necessary part of doing business....

Next time you take public transportation of any kind, ask yourself, do you want the operator of that mode of transportation, cab, bus, airplane, train; high, buzzed, junked, drunk, cracked, stoned, tripping, or any other form of intoxication.....I do not think you do....therefore drug tests....

Ask Princess Diana if she would have gotten into that chauffeurs car if she had known his blood alcohol was over half his body weight..... and he was on 2 prescription medications, one an anti-psychotic....

[rdubwiley]

21. I don't do any drugs, nor drink alcohol

I will always pass one, but it's still bullshit. Most drug tests do not check for alcohol, and even if they did, alcohol leaves your system very quickly. Pre-employment drug tests do not prevent these types of accidents.

[MindMover]

22. Most drug tests do check for alcohol.....by the way it is the cheapest test..

Random drug tests prevent many accidents....

And you still did not answer the 64 million dollar question.....

Would you want the driver of your mode of transportation to be high while you are a passenger..?

[rdubwiley]

23. No,

But drug tests have no real correlation with being high while on the job. Alcohol enters your system quickly, but also is untraceable 24 hours later.

Drug tests don't prevent people from being impaired on the job.

[MindMover]

24. Thank you for answering honestly....Now, the truth is that the...

threat of drug testing does diminish the number of people from getting high before going to work and definitely getting high at work....

If you have a better method of prevention, PLEASE say it here, so we can start doing it.....

By the way, there are methods of drug testing that will tell the tester when you had your last drink or got high within +-5% error range over 6 month period....test is expensive and not used unless for a position in ultra sensitive work conditions....

[rdubwiley]

25. Well,

It's difficult to tell how successful drug tests are at diminishing impairment, because there is no real control, and it's somewhat difficult to get a good measure.

A better way of prevention would be to have reaction tests, which are somewhat cheap now that technology has increased. It's certainly better than keeping people from having a job because they like to relax with marijuana, instead of other harder drugs.

[MindMover]

26. Now that is quite the idea, reaction tests.....

Before you can start your vehicle, drive the bus, pilot the plane, you have to pass a reaction test.....

Excellent idea.....you are cleared to pilot Sir.....

[2pooped2pop]

30. there is a huge difference in jobs

I would prefer to know what the people making my laws are on.

But yes a drug test for someone taxed with operating a lethal weapon such as a plane or car could be tested. But it would really only give a partially true pic if he/she were on dangerous narcotics if it was given as they are boarding the plane or vehicle. It should still not flunk you for smoking pot last week, while passing you if u did some coke two days ago. Of course if you drank last week but not right now as you are driving my bus, I won't have a probleem with it.

So to test my driver, one would have to test him as he prepared to drive. Random test that show your state right now, not last month, or no tests at all is how it should be.

We're talking about drug test for almost all jobs now. Drug test to disqualify liberals from having employment and drug tests to get employers off the hook for on the job injuries. And the latest; drug test to get the poor off of food stamps.

back again to TEST THE POLITICIANS and we would be a lot safer.

[MindMover]

33. Ok, IQ tests for politicians and reaction tests for everyone else...

[2pooped2pop]

34. no, I don't think we need any test for most jobs

maybe the airplane pilot, the train conductor, and a few others but no tests are needed to flip burgers, build cabinets, cut grass, answer phones, sales, on and on .

For congress, yes. Daily testing may be needed. lol

[90-percent]

20. Your rights at work

there is actually a book by this name, that I happen to own.

What amazes me is simply how many rights your employer has over you. Correct me if I'm wrong, but employers have access to your records - tests from public school like SATS and IQ tests, that you as an individual don't even have access to!

These times are the worst era to be an American worker since the thirties. I guess we have to be happy with what we've got, and accept that more and more will be taken from us in the name of economic servitude to "business"

I heard somewhere "Calling it a business decision is just an excuse for people to treat other people like animals."

I don't think humans, as social animals, were really intended to be so cut throat to each other. It's not how things work out best for the common good.

-90% Jimmy

[MindMover]

27. Another reason for your reaction tests....

before you can start any engine and drive off....

http://now.msn.com/now/0603-stoner-mom-baby?ocid=vt_twmsnnow

[rdubwiley]

28. The same thing happens with other drugs

The most common being drunk drivers, who kill people all the time. The only reason that story is so shocking is because it doesn't happen very often. Some people are really stupid, there's not much we can do about that.

[MindMover]

29. We can have a reaction test before they can start their engines....

What ya say, you and me and Reaction testing.....next big IPO....

They got over 200,000 of these on vehicles, why not reaction testers.....

http://www.smartstartinc.com/

[Rhiannon12866]

31. I know someone who tested positive because he had a Lifesaver while he was waiting

He vehemently denied any drug use, so the drug testers also had a Lifesaver and they tested positive, too. Apparently, there's something in the coating. I think it was peppermint.

[rdubwiley]

32. Drug tests can

Give a false positive to a lot of strange substances. Another reason why it's bullshit.

[HopeHoops]

35. So are standardized tests. By the way, poppy seeds will trigger a positive for opiates.

Just saying.

[numer]

36. A better test

A better test would be reaction test, which actually test what employers should be looking for.

[Skinner]

37. Welcome to DU, numer.

[cbayer]

38. Agree very much.

There are well tested devices that will much more accurately assess whether someone is impaired or not. Sleep deprivation could be a much worse problem than having smoked a joint on Friday night.