Bummer for co-worker

My boss told us last week that we had to show up for work today ON TIME and do our work fast because we were having a meeting at the office with our new owners from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. I wasn’t looking forward to sitting in this meeting for two hours. But we got there and my OLD supervisor told us to drink water. OK. And they had pizza and Coke there for us. So our little crew sat down to eat and we were informed they were doing drug testing of us.Thus the order to drink. OK for me, I’m clean. But when we were leaving my co-worker told me he’s going to test positive for marijuana. And maybe other stuff. He was depressed of course, he could lose a cushy job. He admitted to the tester about the drugs.And he was a little mad because the office workers had gotten a months notice of the testing while we didn’t know until today. So I hope he gets lucky and gets to keep his job. Incidentally, there was no meeting. It turns out it was just lunch and drug testing, and back to the job site. My co-worker kind of needles me sometimes but I feel for the guy.

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Doesn’t this guy know that reefer can drive a man craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy…

no but seriously, that sucks. When I was 20 I was on track to be handed a pretty sweet job doing maintenance work for a factory, aced all the interviews was pretty much hired and then told to stop by the lab and have my drug test and I’d be on the job…cr*p on a pancake!

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I’m no fan of pot, but I fail to see how a bit of recreational use of the stuff precludes one from employment. So long as you don’t smoke the stuff right before or at work, no harm no foul. I don’t understand the hysteria that surrounds its use in the U.S. Hope the d00d keep his job – this seems like a personal intrusion to me.

10-96

At my old job managing the psychiatric treatment center, we drug screened every patient on admission. And if the pt tested positive, they were automatically excluded from our partial hospitalization program and our residential treatment facilities.

I always hated having to do this. It IS intrusive and seems archaic to me. Drugs do impair coordination, motor skills, and logical thought. But so does psychosis. We don’t fire people or exclude them for having a thought disorder. To me, its no different.

The issue with marijuana is that it stays in your system for several weeks, so employers cant tell if you’ve smoked 3 weeks ago or 3 HOURS ago. Most other drugs metabolize and leave your system quickly–usually within a matter of days. With the exception of chronic opiod use, which can take several weeks to clear also.

So your coworker might test negative for the other drugs in a typical 8 panel drug screen. I hope he can manage to save his job. Maybe this will be a wakeup call for him to quit drugs.

Good for you for staying clean! You’re a smart guy.

Blessings,

Anthony

I think the obvious out here is to say that you visited a relative in Colorado where the stuff is legal. It will be problematic for employers to demand documentation of this, or to punish an employee for engaging in an activity that is now within the law.

10-96

I remember reading that there are employers in Colorado who are continuing to drug test and exclude those who test positive for marijuana based on the fact that it’s still a crime under federal law.