the companies insuance companies make them test their employees, so they will test you, prescription or not.

 

I think is if a human being is in pain, and some little plant can take that pain away, help that person sleep, eat and just feel better than ANYTHING else can. Than when that person goes to work, sober than there should be no problem. A company has no right to say what there employees do in there time out of work.

 

Most employers will never give a reason as to why you weren't hired. It keeps 'em out of trouble. People that I know who were called for initial interviews and were never called back were not given reasons why. By not mentioning anything, it severely limits the amount of liability the company has in its hiring practices. I would imagine the same would be true for medicinal pot.

TSC

 

HR/Safety Manager here.

We give a "conditional offer of employment", we reserve the right to check the following: background, credit, pre-employment physical and drug test. We always do a drug test, the others vary by project. We only hire folks who have a negative drug test result.

We use a 5 panel pee cup, Amp, Cocaine, Opiates, Marijuana and PCP. A non-negative on the cup is sent of to a lab for GC/MS testing. If it's negative at that point, the test is negative. If it is positive, the results are sent to a third party Medical Review Officer (MRO). The MRO contacts the individual to determine prescriptions and dosages. The MRO decides if the level in the urine is within the dosages allowed by the prescription. (Is the person taking one every 4 hours or 4 every 1 hour?) We don't take any information about prescriptions prior to the pee test, we are not qualified to make those kind of determinations. The pee cup is just a yes/no result; no indications of levels.

Marijuana is different that the others. Alcohol is metabolized at about 1 drink per hour, 1 drink is about equivalent to 0.02% blood alcohol level. A BAL of 0.08% is considered to impaired to drive. Lets not discuss levels of impairment for different individuals.

Marijuana is different, it can stay in a persons body for up to 30 days, long past any level of impairment.

Until there is a proven test to determine level of impairment for a marijuana user, companies will decline to offer potential employees a job.

To clarify a few points mentioned above: Insurance companies do not force us to drug test. They do offer us discounts to have a drug free workplace. Companies who have active drug programs have 30% fewer injuries and accidents in the workplace. Where would you rather work?

No, it is none of our business what you do on your off time. however, if you spend the week end hammered on meth or coke, how good an employee are you on Monday or Tuesday?

Drug free is what you agreed to when you got your job, if you want to change the conditions of your employment, that's fine. You are free to go work for another company.

 

It all depends on who the employer is. If your going for a federal job, medical marijuana is still against federal law, so you probably are out of luck. Jobs that have high liability you are also probably out of luck. Contrary to SafetyDave's statement as long as you test positive for MJ you are under the influence. The only way to test positive for MJ is for your body to be metabolizing THC. If you are metabolizing THC, you are still under the influence of the drug. Now the level of impairment would have to be determined. You can have a few drinks of alcohol, yet still be legal to drive. The same can be said about MJ. The big difference is that with MJ and a high liability job you could put others in danger, so it would be no different than taking oxycodone, Tylenol 3 or any of the other major pain relieving drugs. If you are taking them you will be put on light duty, where your decisions won't have any major effect on anybody's life.

 

I say read the American with disabilities act if you have it prescribed for a disability.

But, being its pot and not federally recognized, probably yes. If it were a narcotic/opiate/opoid.. I'd say no.

Of course even if an employer is not hiring you b/c of say narcotic use even if legal, they'll say something like not enough qualifications, ect.

Good luck.

SafetyDave, I have a question, please don't take it personally. Just from my reading of ADA I am confused and I'd like your 'SME' (Subject Matter Expertise).

Do you dip stick test on the spot when you/they interview (obviously in a bathroom or private room of some type)? Or, do you have a lab dipstick for the company? I was under the impression from my ADA reading a business,company,ect couldn't drug test for the fact even if someone legally had a postive due to human essence they would discriminate. So they use labs and the lab only reports if there is a postive without a doctors prescription/auth(legal) means? Just curious so I can have clarification.

I ask because I am disabled and take narcotics and since getting out the Army have applied for several jobs and landed all I've applied for even in a warehouse plastic company with machines. I did get drug tested by a lab, but the lab never even reported I had LEGAL prescriptions, nor did my employer ask. I know they didn't even know because one of my supervisors was my neighbor and I asked him and he said no, they only report if its a positive without a legal means of having them. The other job when I quit because of my health and asked if they knew I was on medication and they told me no and same thing my last job said.

Thanks Man...

Also from my experience, I'd say dipsticks are about 50 to 75% accurate and gas/spectro is about 99.9, would you also agree?

 

Hey OC, very valid questions.

We have them pee in a 5 panel cup after they have provided ID and signed the waver. It is a self-contained cup. the five dipsticks are integrated into it. We don't have to open the sample (and open the opportunity to charges of tampering) and smell the wonderful aroma.

If any of the panels are non-negative, we seal it up, initial the seal, have the donor fill out the chain of custody form and package it up & send it to the lab. The lab runs the GC/MS test as described in my previous post. We do not ask the donor about any prescriptions/OTC use as this gets into ADA issues as you suggested.

You (or our potential employees) take prescribed meds which can/do show up on a drug screen. Several things can lead to a "negative result".

1) You are taking your meds at the prescribed dosages. Maybe you are a big guy, maybe you didn't take them this AM; but for whatever reason you do not have enough in your system to make the strip say you have it in your system. The cups operate on a threshold value, the threshold for opiates is 750 ng/ml. If you are below that, the cup says you are good.
2) You are taking your meds at the prescribed dosages. Maybe you are a little guy, maybe you took the meds before you went to bed last night, maybe your dosage is high. Whatever, the cup says you are "non-negative". The sample goes to the lab and follows what I talked about in my other post: can be negative out of the machine, or the MRO calls you and confirms that the levels in your urine are consistant with your prescription(s)

Another ADA issue, whatever the MRO and the donor talk about is confidential, all we get is a Pass/Fail, no explanation.

Accuracy of the cup. It is high, we have very few folks who test positive fo illegal substances come back negative from the lab. Marijuana more than anything else. One trainer speculated that it was because of the nature of THC, that it can adhere to the sides of the test cup over time, lowering the concentration in the sample.

There you go!

 

All I know is I can miss 60% of classes and still pass...

No, but the ADA is great thing...