Government is going to drug test using hair and anything else

[Virgil]

The article speaks for itself. Drug test using urine mainly found laughing grass victims as everything else can be taken on Friday and gone on Monday. Testing for hair is going to cause a lot of people to lose their jobs and hair testing is coming.

From http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040114_2524.html

NEW YORK Jan. 14 — The federal government is planning to overhaul its employee drug testing program to include scrutiny of workers' hair, saliva and sweat, a shift that could spur more businesses to revise screening for millions of their own workers.

The planned changes, long awaited by the testing industry, reflect government efforts to be more precise in its drug screening and to outmaneuver a small but growing subset of workers who try to cheat on urine-based tests.

Some businesses have already adopted alternative testing, despite criticism by privacy advocates. But others have held back, partly awaiting government standards.

Alternative testing methods would give employers more certainty about the timing and scope of drug usage than is now possible solely with urine sampling, said Robert Stephenson II, an official with the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

That could be particularly valuable in situations like investigations of on-the-job accidents, to determine not just whether an employee uses drugs but if usage occurred recently enough to be a cause.

<snipped>

[demsrule4life]

1. You are wasting your breath here

We are loosing more and more of our freedoms everyday and nobody gives a shit. Hell there are people here in the DU actively trying to get freedoms taken away. I wonder how much they will cry when they wake up one morning and finally realize they don't have any freedoms at all. But of course by then it will be to late.

[Paranoid_Portlander]

2. Stool samples may be next.

It gives new meaning to the phrase "no one gives a sh*t". This is just speculation on my part, but what is to stop employers from requiring stool samples, or even blood draws? What is to stop the gov't from REQUIRING employers to conduct these intrusions? What will be next?

[beevul]

3. This is sad.

As if the present intrusions into privacy weren't enough...


I can see no good that will come of this.

No good at all.

[Scout]

4. there are special cleansing shampoos you can use

when you take your shower the day of your drug test...

[beevul]

5. You have got to be kidding...

I guess I have little to no knowledge about the test done on hair...or the folicle...or whichever it is.

In any case, this "shampoo" something I had not heard of.

How does the test work, when done on a hair?

Can hair be truly cleansed of ...whatever the test looks for?(if that is indeed how the test works)

Theres an aweful lot of MJ users-medical and otherwise, and that product, if it worked, would be a useful tool for keeping thier private lives just that.


One wonders if a relationship will form similar to radar guns and radar detectors. I seem to recall a radar gun MFG company also making and selling the detectors - playing both sides so to speak.

[79Ramchargerfan]

6. ummmm..............

just say no?

in general Govt employees hold govt jobs that require spending govt dollars that come from taxes taxed from blue collar an white collar workers.

do you want jay an silent bob spending your tax dollars?


do you want your local law enforcement an national guard or active soldiers to be closet pot heads an coke sniffers?

[beevul]

8. No, of course not...

/sarcasm on

Id much rather have the gov and any potential employer to know what everyone does or does not do in thier spare time. I would much rather they take those pesky closet users and put them in the big house so they can learn better ways to break the law. I would much rather see them in that "higher criminal learning" environment developing a healthy hatred for the society that puts them there. Yeah, that sounds like a no brainer.

/sarcasm off.

"do you want your local law enforcement an national guard or active soldiers to be closet pot heads an coke sniffers?"-79Ramchargerfan


No more or less than I want them to be closet drinkers or closet tobacco users. And since I have never seen any non-biased information reguarding functionality under the influence of MJ or coke, I am unwilling to simply jump on the bandwagon that "closet pot heads an coke sniffers" would function at any less capacity than thier non user counterparts. That being said, I believe drug addiction could be better dealt with under a scheme of decriminalization and taxation, than under the current scheme. In the case of MJ, though, thats not even an issue. At least no more so than tobacco or alcohol.

I might be willing to go to some hypothetical middleground, the day they come out with a test that accurately determines whether an individual is under the influence at a given specific time, and reveals NOTHING reguarding history of use. Notice I said MIGHT. I still see too much room for abuse and/or corruption of that kind of information where the stupidity of Americas "drug war" is concerned.

IMO, workplace injury, and driving under the influence may be debateable, but its NOONES business what an individual "uses" behind closed doors in the privacy of thier own home.

"just say no?"-79Ramchargerfan


Ummmm...yeah. Just say no to invasions of privacy by the gov or big business.

[Scout]

10. lots of room for abuse by employers!

"I still see too much room for abuse and/or corruption of that kind of information where the stupidity of Americas "drug war" is concerned."

yup, lots of stupidity and abuse. One anecdote from my past employment:
"Doug" was a good employee; good attendance, good performance evaluations, not a discipline problem, all that stuff. Doug had problems with what he thought was a repetitive motion chronic condition of pain in wrists and hands from years of computer use and then months of doing manufacturing work on a machine. Doug went to the company-approved clinic to see if he could get the corrective surgery through workmen's compensation. Guess what first thing they did was??? A urine drug test, which came up positive for marijuana. Doug was fired, no references, no severerance pay, no unemployment. Apparently Doug's marijuana use had not negatively impacted his work performance all this time ... but now the company is free of responsibility for the chronic, disabling condition Doug got while working for them for years.

[slackmaster]

7. Make sure to use it on ALL of your hair

I have intel that says they usually take samples of arm hair or leg hair rather than head hair.

[Scout]

9. use it on your body when you shower

I've never used the shampoos myself.

Get a copy of High Times magazine ... there is indeed a whole industry of fooling drug tests. Every time a new method of testing is developed, they get busy coming up with ways to fool the test.

Apparently, you can even get a fake penis and bladder outfit that you wear ... supposedly a man can use it without getting caught even for an observed collection.

As long as people are not under the influence at work, it is none of the government's or employers' business what they are doing outside of work.