Drug Tests - Why They're Useless And Why We Need to Stop

Discussion in 'General' started by Sublime, Aug 18, 2017.

  1. Drug Tests. We all hate them. Or a lot of us in this forum, at least. There is quite a problem we have with the mainstream method of drug testing - the piss test. Piss tests disproportionately test for marijuana exclusively, while being nearly unable to detect any real hardcore drug users. The reason for this is due to the fact that, seemingly, the worse the drug is for you, the quicker it comes out of your system. But this would make sense, as your body would want to work harder to rid itself of what it would consider toxins. Meanwhile, marijuana can stay in your system for months, and the body doesn't consider it as a toxin.

    Drug tests like this are pointless. They are nothing more than a giant waste of money. Sure, the drug tester industry who creates these piss tests and the labs you go to just to piss for it make money off of it, but the rest of the world is losing out and many positions are unable to be filled by qualified people who may use marijuana, even on the occasion. The FBI themselves have complained about how they are unable to hire any good cybersecurity people due to their drug testing standards. You are not catching people partake in harder substances, you are legitimately only weeding out people who smoke weed.

    It would seem like it should be the other way around, if you're doing hardcore drugs, that should be more important to worry about rather than a guy smoking weed on his time off.

    I say we abolish all forms of drug testing. Stop the money wasting. Stop wasting our times. If they are not functional on the job, then you fire them. If they are intoxicated during their job, then do what needs to be done as seen fit, many would say fire them. I also understand companies get tax breaks for drug testing, so there is also incentive to do so. Correct me if I'm wrong on that, I very well could be. Cba to look it up atm. If this is the case, these tax breaks need to be removed for drug testing, unless they find a way to proportionately test all drugs (in a cost-effective manner), or exclude marijuana from the list of drugs being tested. You should only ever fire someone for using marijuana on the job. Nobody bats an eye when people drink outside their job, and we already know which one is worse for your body and your mind based on alcohol vs. weed, but god forbid you smoke a joint on your own time.
     
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  2. shit i guess, you make a valid argument, i kinda agree like why drug test someone prior too a job? the only reason i could see is if the jobs ultra fucking xxx dangerous and you could seriously die with 1 mistake! lol, but those jobs are RARE AF! so drug tests are wack and useless :O kinda. lol
     
  3. They are, especially since the majority of people they catch with a piss test are weed users...Legitimately the least harmful of the drug spectrum users. Everything else is out of your system in days usually, and even a junkie can stop long enough for that.
     
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  4. Really? That's the only reason you can come up with? How about not wanting to hire a fucking pot head or a drug addict? I mean it seems incredibly obvious to me why employers would drug test prospective employees.
     
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  5. Yeah, the half life of harder drugs is much shorter than weed, so drug tests can essentially seem like marijuana tests. The half life of some unmentionables can be as short as 15 minutes, and remain in the system anywhere from a day to a week, versus marijuana that can remain in the system for weeks/months.
     
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  6. #6 Sublime, Aug 18, 2017
    Last edited: Aug 19, 2017
    Clearly, you did not read my post one bit..... You read the title and ignored everything else.

    and you don't have to be a pothead to fail a drug test. You can be a casual smoker and fail, but you can be a casual drinker and not fail. Because drinking alcohol is so much better, right?

    I even said drug testing would be fine if it actually caught harder substances, but it doesn't. It only catches pot users for the majority. Most do piss tests, and most hard drug users can stay clean for 3 days long enough to pass a drug test. You're basically only testing for weed, and nothing else, because the other drugs are out of your system with that test relatively quickly. Even a junkie knows to stay clean when he's getting a job, he can likely stay clean for 3 days, whereas a weed user will have to stay clean for a month or beyond, the drug which is far less harmful than basically every other one.
     
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  7. i dont recall responding to you..... i clearly responded to j2lauzon.
     
  8. Even so, your reply basically seems as if you ignored my post. The whole point of this post was that drug tests don't work. They only work for pot users. And as if a pot head is the worst drug addict in the world? How about an alcoholic? But you'll have a much harder time drug testing an alcoholic and finding out. Or a tweaker. My point was drug tests specifically target pot users, the least harmful drug, while being quite incapable of detecting harder drug users accurately (as it cleans out their system much quicker)
     
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  9. It seems to me some people overlook your smoking especially when your open about it and of use. I know a few people working in youth welfare who ask me for advice on how to deal with stoner teens.
    one of them offered me a job once I'm qualified for it.

    While we're still discriminated with these tests we need to do our best to show the world that stoners are better than our reputation. Except for remembering where I put my lighter
     
  10. Haha, well I wish it was the same here. If you're open about it, you'll likely not get the job.

    But anyways, you likely won't catch any hard drug users or junkies this way (piss test), and you're only thinning out qualified candidates, because not every weed smoker is a pot head (imagine if alcohol stayed in your system as long as pot, and they tested for it. Good luck getting a job), and not every weed smoker is lazy or stupid as a large amount of people still believe. Just as there are some people who can control their drinking habits. But you could easily hire a junkie, or a guy who shoots up, or snorts, or pops pills or whatever else with this drug test, because it's much easier for them to get clean.

    Dealing with underage smokers is a hard one. Very grey area to deal with and it seems to be very opinionated at the moment, I would rather have more hard science on it to give me the straight facts. Pot definitely isn't the worst drug, and I'd rather my kid smoke pot than drink alcohol or smoke ciggys, but at the same time, I wouldn't want my kid to be doing any of it, I'd be fine with pot once he's 21, but until then, I'd rather he or she wait. I made the mistake of not waiting, and I wish I did wait til I was older to start.
     
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  11. I know the kind of alcoholics I worked with at a brewery. Everybody would be more suited to drive a forklift than the fella on my shift.

    And dealing with underage smokers my strategy is to make sure they know they gotta work twice as hard as anyone else if they wanna smoke weed and be successful. If they touch anything other than weed or shrooms it's off to therapy for them
     
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  12. I actually like that approach. I'm fine if they only do weed, and I do NOT think weed is a gateway drug by any means (the VAST majority of people who move onto drugs don't start with weed....but with alcohol and ciggys first, but weed somehow gets the blame for it), but I am opposed to all other drugs. Psychedelics I'm okay with, but I don't think you should try them until you're in a good position and older. there are some exceptions, as we are recently finding out some psychedelics have medical properties for example.

    Also, alcohol impairs you far worse than weed. Your reaction time is slower on alcohol. Your vision is distorted when wasted. Even a stoned person still has their vision just fine. Your motor skills are much more of a wreck drunk, they may be slightly impaired stoned, but nothing to the extent of alcohol. When you drive drunk, you speed and swerve and weave and often, have fatal crashes. When you drive high, you often drive slowly and are overly focused on the road and overly cautious. If you crash, it's far less likely to be fatal.

    To me, being drunk and working with equipment is 100x more dangerous than being high and working with equipment. Yet society acts as if the latter is worse.
     
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  13. Piss tests don't exclusively test for cannabis unless it's a 1 panel test. Most or 5 to 7 panel tests for employment. I give drug tests at work and have used many different brands of tests. And by the way most companies drug test because their insurance requires them too to maintain their policy.
     
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  14. They might as well exclusively test for cannabis - I don't think you got the point. Your system cleans out the hard drugs so fast, just about anyone doing them can stay clean long enough to pass the test.... So while they are panels being tested for, the odds you'll test positive on anything other than cannabis....Pretty slim unless you have 0 self control, but even a Junkie can stay clean long enough (3 days, sometimes less) to pass a drug test on harder drugs. Not the case with weed.

    Example here. What if alcohol stayed in your system as long as pot???? How many people do you think you'd be able to hire then? What if every drug stayed in your system as long as pot? Then I'd consider it a fair test. But that is not the case.

    And I mentioned in the OP something about some kind of tax break for it, is this correct? But right, insurance companies require it because if you get injured on drugs it changes everything. But again, that system targets cannabis more than any other drug. It's probably not on purpose, but that's just the way it worked out.
     
  15. #15 killset, Aug 19, 2017
    Last edited: Aug 19, 2017
    I got your point bro but you're wrong about that. Trust me insurance companies wish all drugs tested for longer. Pot heads are not singled out, that's ridiculous.

    No there is not a tax break that's just stoner hysteria you fell for.

    You must not know very many junkies if you think most can go 3days.. Recreational users sure, not true full blown junkies

    The system doesn't target cannabis users more, cannabis is just detected for longer periods of time. That's not caused by the "system". That's your body and the drug used
     
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  16. I live 2 of them.... Both of them are full blown junkies. One is on probation even right now, and he does every drug in the book right now and is getting drug tested and passing after being clean only 3 days. He intentionally stays away from weed and won't smoke weed at all because of that.

    That was my mistake then, I wasn't 100% sure on that part.

    I'm sure it's not intentional they're singled out, but they are. That's just the truth.... Whether it's intentional or not. It simply stays in your system so much longer than every other drug.
     
  17. I didn't say it wasn't doable but its not easy for a junkie. Jist because you know 2 doesn't mean much.....the junkies I've been around and been myself......no its not easy. If it was easy you wouldn't be a junkie

    You can continue being wrong thinking pot heads are singled out if you want. More pot head hysteria. That's the most absurd thing I've heard in awhile. Insurance companies would love for employers to be able to test longer for other drugs but they can't control how our bodies process drugs
     
  18. #18 Sublime, Aug 19, 2017
    Last edited: Aug 19, 2017
    My statement is not invalid. Pot stays in your system longer than virtually all other drugs. Fact. Pot is one of the least harmful drugs. Fact.

    As a result, regardless of how you see it, you ARE disproportionately targeting cannabis users, whether intentional or not. Call me wrong if you so feel. Or a pot head, if that makes you feel better. Why the negative association? What's so bad about a pot head anyways? I'll tell you what the worst a pot head will do: be lazy. I'll tell you the worst an alcoholic will do: violent, yelling, making stupid decisions, blacking out, forgetting everything that happened, and hangovers.

    And harder drug users will do just about damn near anything to get their next high. So you tell me which drug is worse. It's as if, the harder the drug, the quicker it's out of your system.

    How long do drugs stay in your system? - Drug and Alcohol Information and Support in Ireland - Drugs.ie

    You tell me. The VAST majority of hard drugs are out of your system in 3 days by piss test, even for a frequent user. While I myself never struggled with hard drugs or tried them, I am well aware of the 2 people in my house who've lived with me my whole life who have.
     
  19. You can enjoy alcohol on your time off, and even get injured and have the alcohol out of your system by the time it comes around, but if you try to enjoy weed on your time off and happen to get injured, even if you weren't high on the job, you can't even file worker's comp. You can't tell me that's not biased. Whether it's intentional or not. You're allowed to indulge in alcohol on the weekends (which is worse for you), but you're not allowed to indulge in weed. You don't even have to be a pothead to fail it. Even if you're a casual, you can still fail. But you can casually drink just fine.
     
  20. Where the hell do you work. Insurance companies will not cover you if they find out you have alcohol in your system at the time of the accident on a job...lol that's silly man how do I know, because I deal with it alot.

    I'm not saying all your points are invalid....just some and they are. You've fallen so far into pot head hysteria its funny
     
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