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drug testing and legalized marijuana

supermanlives

Active member
Veteran
hows that gonna work now with legalization??? if you can legally toke up while on vacation and then go back to your illegal state and have to take drug test for job.....I am so glad it aint an issue for me....
 

Floridian

Active member
Veteran
I imagine if the employers insurance carriers don't allow marijuana then nothing will change.Hopefully,they will develop an accurate test to see if it has been used in the last few hours.That would suck anyway of course but it would be more fair than being fired for a couple bonghits you did 3 weeks ago
 

supermanlives

Active member
Veteran
I agree with better testing needed.....in my last job any accident gets ya an automatic test.. but I don't have accidents luckily.. but by their standards a smoking session a week ago would show up and you are assumed to have been high at time of accident.. I don't see insurance companies changing till testing has improved like booze
 

stickshift

Active member
I was in a position before Christmas, Where my employers wanted to run drug tests even though it wasn't in my contract, I fucked them off with their draconian shite... the cut off point was an utter joke and I pointed a few things out to them that didn't clearly go down too well, but sometimes I feel it is better to actually stand up than just continue being downtrodden... but I understand that ain't for everyone...

Like floridian says about insurance, that's all corporates give a shit about the mighty £$£$£
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
hows that gonna work now with legalization??? if you can legally toke up while on vacation and then go back to your illegal state and have to take drug test for job.....I am so glad it aint an issue for me....

I would imagine it would work roughly the same as opiates and that if you have a legitimate reason for having marijuana in your system (a prescription) then okay.

As for recreational I don't know, even though it's legal they can't force companies to hire people that use. Companies can argue that it's just not cost effective due to the typical behaviors associated with marijuana use. Just like they can do with alcohol. Unfortunately marijuana stays detectable in urine screenings far longer then most other drugs or alcohol which is out of your system in 1-3 days tops. This makes it much harder to hide marijuana use. The problem is though that once legal and socially accepted I think they'll have a tough time finding employees if they don't find a way to test that can only show if someone is currently high or gotten high in the last 24hrs. Because once people get to try it without the threat of imprisonment or some social stigma being attached I think there will be a massive number of people who will be wondering why we ever made such a wonderful thing illegal in the first place? Hopefully at that point employers will give up on infringing our 4th Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.
 

Floridian

Active member
Veteran
No matter how wonderful it is,and I know it is,if the insurance companies have preconceived notions that it wouldn't be good for their bottom line,what you I and the company thinks wont matter.I worked for a small electrical contractor about 15 people and the guy said fuck the insurance companies,but I know that's rare.I'd tell you what I do now but unfortunately I would have to stone you and send you home with a smile and a sample.
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
No matter how wonderful it is,and I know it is,if the insurance companies have preconceived notions that it wouldn't be good for their bottom line,what you I and the company thinks wont matter.I worked for a small electrical contractor about 15 people and the guy said fuck the insurance companies,but I know that's rare.I'd tell you what I do now but unfortunately I would have to stone you and send you home with a smile and a sample.

What you say is true to a point but if it gets to the point of 75% or more of the population using and companies continue hiring only drug free people, the system will break. If everyone is unemployable, everybody loses, especially the insurance companies. Where are they going to get their money when all the companies go under because they can't find anyone to pass a piss test?
 

LEF

Active member
Veteran
people want a roadside (inexpensive) drug test for marijuana

talk about a prison system
 

m314

Active member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
What you say is true to a point but if it gets to the point of 75% or more of the population using and companies continue hiring only drug free people, the system will break. If everyone is unemployable, everybody loses, especially the insurance companies. Where are they going to get their money when all the companies go under because they can't find anyone to pass a piss test?

I don't think 75% of the population will get high when it's legal. Lots of people try it and don't like it. Lots of people don't even want to try it. Some people will try it because it's legal, but overall I think most people who want to get high are already doing ig.

What kind of insurance requires drug testing? Drug testing is rare in the software industry, and we have well paying jobs with good health insurance. Of course we're not exactly operating heavy machinery on the job.
 

Jhhnn

Active member
Veteran
Drug testing for pot never was about safety, but rather about back door law enforcement- It's one of the great hypocrisies of America. All the players know that current testing doesn't measure intoxication at all, but they pretend. It's a scam. It often provides a scapegoat & diversion from management induced safety issues.

If cannabis is legalized at both the state & federal levels, then current testing methods simply cannot stand. It's only accepted because cannabis is illegal.
 

aridbud

automeister
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I don't think 75% of the population will get high when it's legal. Lots of people try it and don't like it. Lots of people don't even want to try it. Some people will try it because it's legal, but overall I think most people who want to get high are already doing ig.

What kind of insurance requires drug testing? Drug testing is rare in the software industry, and we have well paying jobs with good health insurance. Of course we're not exactly operating heavy machinery on the job.

Random drug screens occur if you are employed in the medical field, working with special populations. You'll see 'drug free work place"....some only test for pre-employment while other industries routinely test....when your lottery number comes, it's time to pee in a cup.

As for opiates and legit Rx for it to manage severe pain....it's tied into DEA "rules", esp. since there is a ever growing problem with opiate abuse. Strict rules apply for patients taking opiate Rx for pain management. Same goes for medical use of cannabis....it doesn't hold up if random tox screen.

Look at the fellow on MMJ fired because he was using (not abusing) cannabis....and if I recall, he worked @ Best Buy.
 

Jhhnn

Active member
Veteran
Random drug tests are part & parcel of having a CDL, per federal law. Transit companies are all over it like white on rice, as are railroads & big trucking outfits.
 

Midnight Tokar

Member
Veteran
Random drug tests are part & parcel of having a CDL, per federal law. Transit companies are all over it like white on rice, as are railroads & big trucking outfits.
Exactly. The first drug tests came about because the DOT required them of anyone who transported goods on the highway system, all employees, not just the drivers. Think about how many companies that use the interstate system to ship their product.
 

420somewhere

Hi ho here we go
Veteran
I turned down a job a Daylight Transport

I turned down a job a Daylight Transport

Exactly. The first drug tests came about because the DOT required them of anyone who transported goods on the highway system, all employees, not just the drivers. Think about how many companies that use the interstate system to ship their product.

It was for the V.P. of Software. They were pissed. I had been vetted by their folks and the shrinks. They said just piss in a cup.

That wasn't the only reason, long commute, work in the ghetto, etc.

I would have had to move to Palos Verde to make it work for me.

Now I work at Software company, with a bunch of discrete stoners :dance013:

It's really about performance, isn't it ? :tiphat:
 

HempKat

Just A Simple Old Dirt Farmer
Veteran
I don't think 75% of the population will get high when it's legal. Lots of people try it and don't like it. Lots of people don't even want to try it. Some people will try it because it's legal, but overall I think most people who want to get high are already doing ig.

What kind of insurance requires drug testing? Drug testing is rare in the software industry, and we have well paying jobs with good health insurance. Of course we're not exactly operating heavy machinery on the job.

Virtually all jobs in my area have random drug testing from the most menial blue collar jobs all the way up to 6 figure white collar jobs. About the only jobs that don't have it are upper management because that typically comes from within and you've already proven yourself at some point before you got there. As for what insurance companies require it, I didn't say that, someone else did. Presumably he meant the insurance companies employers use to cover their employees in cases of workplace accidents.

As for the population, well perhaps not all at once, then again it's not likely to become legal nationwide all at once. Just this past year though for the first time ever more then 50% of the US population said marijuana should be legalized. So that's 50% that would probably use it straight off the bat. Now how much of the other 50% would switch over is unclear. I know quite a few that don't simply because it's illegal and they're law abiding people. I know quite a few others that would do it but don't, not because they're law abiding but they have great careers they've spent most of their lives building with great incomes, that they won't risk just to get high. So many of those people would switch over. Then there is the large pool of children that are too young to be polled and would be growing up in a society where marijuana is being legalized and looked at as less of a bad thing then it once was. In a legalized world I'm confident many of them would use when they're older. Pretty much most of the people against it that will never try it are the older generations still around that have known marijuana as a dangerous drug that makes people crazy enough to rape and murder. Yet even some of them have come around due to developing cancer and finding that marijuana does in fact provide genuine and real relief from the effects of cancer treatments. Many have discovered that way that they were lied to.

Then you have to take into account things like word of mouth. Once it becomes widely adopted friends and family will likely at some point try to convince those who have never tried it to try it. Here's the thing though, they don't have to become hardcore daily smokers for drug testing to become an issue. With the current testing coming up positive as long as 30 days after use even an occasional or weekend smoker would test as positive as someone smoking on the job. Another factor to consider is that people want things to self medicate with, that's why there is a thriving alcohol industry which society managed to also end the prohibition of. Alcohol is far more dangerous and impairs people far more then marijuana ever will. Once society finds that marijuana does a better job at the reason we want to self medicate (to unwind, relax and feel happier) without all the harmful and dangerous side effects of alcohol I think people will be amazed by how widespread marijuana use will become.

As for people who've tried it and don't like it, well to be honest I've met only a handful of those. I bet the majority are like the ones I've met though that were turned off more by the things you have to deal with and risk because it's illegal (like buying from a shady looking character on a street corner in a dangerous part of town and worrying about being stopped by police) then they were turned off by the actual effects of the marijuana itself. Some were turned off because their first time they ate it rather then smoked and they ended up eating too much. I've smoked marijuana happily for over 40 years and even I a veteran smoker and fan of marijuana don't like the feeling I get when I eat too much marijuana. If it were legal though then there would be a better sense of what is too much and people would be less likely to have bad experiences. Also people could work into it gradually more like people do with alcohol. I've met very few people that really like drinking the first time they tried it. For most people alcohol seems to be an acquired taste.
 

Canniwhatsis

High country cat herder
Veteran
There are several cases of MMJ card holders loosing their jobs over a positive piss test, even tho they weren't stoned on the job. IIRC the Colorado Supreme Court is hearing one such case right now. Tackling both weather or not an employer has the right to fire for off duty actions of their employees, and weather patients actually have the right to use cannabis in the first place because of its federal status.
 

supermanlives

Active member
Veteran
feds are good fer nuthin lol ^^^^^^ wonder how that case is gonna go,if any state has a chance of it going positively co is one fo shure at this time
 

m314

Active member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I've read about the history of employment drug testing in the US, how it was pushed by the Reagan administration in the 80s. It started with federal employees and gradually spread through the private sector. Marijuana is the least important thing they test for, but it accounts for most of the failed drug tests because of how long the metabolites stay in your system.

I understand how people wouldn't want their surgeon or their airline pilot high on the job, just like they wouldn't want them drunk on the job. What they do on their off time shouldn't matter. Who cares either way whether cashiers at Best Buy or Walmart get high? It's bullshit in any case, but it's ridiculous that someone at Best Buy could lose their job for getting high on their off time. I think drug testing (at least for weed) will gradually go away for non dangerous jobs as more states legalize.

I've met tons of people who've tried weed and didn't like it. They didn't like the harshness of smoking (like me when I first tried it), or they smoked or ate too much and had a "bad trip", or they felt paranoia from even small amounts. My sister, several of my friends, and a few dozen women I've dated have said they tried it and didn't like it. It's not for everyone.

I just heard a bit from Louis C K about the last time he got high and realized he couldn't get high anymore. Lol. It was a funny story if you've ever smoked way too much without having smoked in a while. I had a few negative experiences like that when I was first getting started. I learned how to relax and go with it instead of feeling anxiety or paranoia. I've accidently had "too much" so many times that there isn't such a thing as too much anymore.
 

TimeKeeper

Active member
A lot of good points made. Things will not change until the feds reclassify cannabis. It's just a matter of time, the gov just needs to come up with a new lie to explain why they ruined thousands of lives with the bullshit war on drugs. But I think the whole drug testing thing will work out soon. Companies will still test for hard core drugs but as cannabis becomes more mainstream I see it being treated more like alcohol.
 

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