The Pointlessness of the Workplace Drug Test

[Panich52]

The Atlantic

The Pointlessness of the Workplace Drug Test

Cup-peeing and mouth-swabbing are Reagan-era relics that frequently do little more than boosting the revenues of companies that analyze samples.

Last year, U.S. workers peed into one drug testing company’s cups about 9.1 million times. And last year, as in other recent years, analysis of about 350,000 of those cups indicated drug use. Most often, the drug of choice was marijuana, followed by amphetamines and painkillers.

The data are a little patchy, but the best estimate is that about 40 percent of U.S. workers are currently subjected to drug tests during the hiring process. Intuitively, that seems like a good idea: A sober, addiction-free workforce is probably a more productive workforce and, in the cases of operating forklifts or driving 18-wheelers, a safer workforce too.

But some of this cup-peeing might be for naught (and that seems to be something that other countries recognize: Drug testing is far more widespread in the U.S. than anywhere else). In many situations, drug tests aren’t capable of revealing impairment on the job, and the cost of finding a single offending employee is high. Besides, as the country takes a more and more permissive stance toward marijuana, and as the painkillers doctors prescribe are abused more and more often, there are gray areas that arise. What role should drug testing play in the workplaces of 2015?

Contemporary workplace drug testing owes its existence to the policies of Ronald Reagan, who in 1988 signed an executive order that led to legislation requiring federal employees and some contractors to be tested. The typical American employer wasn’t required to do anything differently (and still isn’t), but some large companies took this as a cue. A new market bloomed in response. “These … policies fueled the development of a huge industry,” writes SUNY Buffalo’s Michael Frone in his book Alcohol and Illicit Drug Use in the Workforce and Workplace, “comprising drug-test manufacturers, consulting and law firms specializing in the development of drug-testing policies and procedures, and laboratories that carry out the testing.”

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.

More
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/06/drug-testing-effectiveness/394850/


x p Omaha Steve

[Half-Century Man]

1. Part of the push to test comes from workplace health insurance companies.

Injury claims made can be denied if traces of non-prescripted drugs can be detected.
I've seen it time after time.

[fredamae]

2. Oregon: Fired TV Anchor First Blog

first-blog-interview-with-cyd-maurer-news-anchor-fired-for-marijuana

[WDIM]

3. I have never and will never take a drug test.

My employer has no right to my bodily fluids or hair. My value as an employee should be judged by my performance at work and not what i do on my free time.

[RussBLib]

4. I flunked a drug test once

...and it had been several days since I had smoked the marijuana that was detected in my urine. Needless to say, I was not in any way high when I took the test, nor did I ever smoke or injest weed before going to work anywhere. Turns out it was a good thing because the company that I did not get hired to was a really bad employer. I knew a few people that worked there, and they had nothing good to say about the company's policies and safety standards. I probably never should have even tried. They got fined and sanctioned for violating workplace safety and abusing employees.

The only other time I took a drug test I passed it, probably because I drank some detox substance immediately before the test. I got lucky there, as I ended up staying with that employer for 15 years and got multiple promotions, etc.

Land of the free
Home of the brave

[BigDemVoter]

5. I just failed a preemployment drug test at 51-years old!

I was a little bit ashamed at first, but then I thought, "Fuck it." I was a long-term resident of California and am just moving back after 3 years of living in Republican hell. I stopped smoking for a month before the preemployment test and bought one of those "at home" drug tests that indicated a CLEAR negative. I wasn't even worried but got a phone call in the car while I was driving out here that my test was positive! I was so shocked that I had to pull over on the side of the road.

I have a valid marijuana card in California, and I have HIV with an HIV-related cancer (in long remission), so I have valid reasons to be using it. My damned "future employer" rescinded the job offer! I have very good skills in healthcare so I should have another job in short order, but I don't dare start looking right now, as I, of course, smoked AFTER completing what I thought would be ONE pre-employment drug screen. I never dreamed I would fail! I have never heard of anybody having a negative result on the "at home" test and then testing positive.

I have excellent skills in healthcare, so I should have another job in short order. Of course, as I stated above, I am quite pissed about all the trouble this has caused, not to mention the expense.

I am abstaining from any smoking right now, as I will undoubtedly have to take another goddamned drug screen. It just seems hypocritical to me that people can drink themselves silly every night and go to work hungover and not have a problem, but smoke a joint after work to relax and you can get fired as long as the shit is in your system. In MY case, the shit generally stays in my system for WEEKS, as I'm a heavy user.

In any case, all will be well, but right now things are truly the shits!!

[eridani]

6. I flunked one once because I hung around the bathroom too long

Constipation. The result was that the sample cooled off and failed the temperature test. Didn't have enough liquid in me to try again.

I'm told that drinking a lot of water can sometimes dilute metabolites below detection thresholds.

[CanSocDem]

7. The 'elephant in the room'...

...is of course, the "safety" factor. Somewhere along the way, cannabis gained the reputation of making the user Unsafe at Any Job. I never understood this because, in my experience, cannabis made me much more aware of my surroundings and my personal place in the world. I couldn't imagine feeling 'unsafe'.

Early users of cannabis discovered that it enhanced just about everything....including work. So for a few years from the late 60's thru the early 70's, everybody felt good and the workplace hummed along safely and efficiently.

Then, some knucklehead, later infamously known as the "20-20 Trucker", went on TV and explained how it was all being done with the widespread use and acceptance of cannabis and 'speed'. Ron and Nancy were listening and because they had a daughter who had chosen 'pot' over them, they were primed to begin their War on Drugs.

It took a couple of decades for the trucking industry to rid itself of the pot smokers. The Canadians were more reluctant to invade a drivers body looking for evidence of a crime, so I had a couple of years of grace.

However, even as I plotted to remove myself from the industry, I took one last job that required me to undergo a piss test. I even stopped smoking 3 weeks in advance. Did my medical, peed in the cup and hit the road. A month and a half later when I got back to the terminal, they informed me that I had failed the piss test. They wanted me to re-apply once I got home.

So when I got home, I rolled a fattie and thought about my future in trucking, my health and the corporate pressure to assimilate. I sparked that doobie and wrote my letter of resignation. And lived happily ever after....




.

[flibbitygiblets]

9. +1 I once knew a woman (admitted meth user) who said she "had no idea how she passed"

the pre-employment drug screen at a company I worked for. Meanwhile, who knows how many casual pot smokers were denied jobs.

Nice system.

[shanti]

10. I failed one in 1989

The temp job I had with an insurance company liked my work and wanted to hire me. The weekend before though, I went to a reggae festival, and partook of the herbal goodies. The monday after, I was tested and failed. Ultimately, it didn't matter because 2 months later I was offered a job with the State, with no drug test, and was hired. I was with the State for 21 years, with excellent reviews. Best thing that could have happened to me! When one door closes, another one opens.

[GWC58]

11. Only one (1) time have

I failed a dt, this in June 2015.
At the time I was getting monthly Rx’s for OxyContin 40’s & Percocet 10’s for chronic pain. I’ve had four (4) neck fusions, one (1) of which failed and one (1) lower back (L-4/S-1) surgery. My test showed 22ng’s. This drs threshold was 20ng. He didn’t drop me, though. Started using cannabis (vapor) in late September and have, just about, weaned myself off of opioids.. It has taken me over six months to get off OxyContin. I suspect I may have to continue, in addition to the cannabis, oxycodone 5’s.. By the way in the beginning my wife was very skeptical about my using cannabis to get off opiates. She has changed her tune, at least some.