Lifestyle choices: becoming drug free, or staying unemployed!

Jackie Calmes reports in the New York Times,

All over the country, employers say they see a disturbing downside of tighter labor markets as they try to rebuild from the worst recession since the Depression: They are struggling to find workers who can pass a pre-employment drug test.

I know that is true here in Colorado, and I think it is due to the legalization of marijuana. Marijuana can stay in ones blood stream several weeks. One can't just smoke or eat some marijuana and wait a couple days before applying for a job. The test will be positive for marijuana. Drug users know that, and many just skip applying at places that require drug testing, or skip going to the drug-testing place.

Calmes continues,

That hurdle partly stems from the growing ubiquity of drug testing, at corporations with big human resources departments, in industries like trucking where testing is mandated by federal law for safety reasons, and increasingly at smaller companies.

But data suggest employers’ difficulties also reflect an increase in the use of drugs, especially marijuana — employers’ main gripe — and also heroin and other opioid drugs much in the news.

Another New York Times article from January pointed out that

Deaths from overdoses are
reaching levels similar to the H.I.V. epidemic at its peak. ...The number of these deaths reached a new peak in 2014: 47,055 people, or the equivalent of about 125 Americans every day.

Calmes adds,

In Colorado, “to find a roofer or a painter that can pass a drug test is unheard-of,” said Jesse Russow, owner of Avalanche Roofing & Exteriors, in Colorado Springs. That was true even before Colorado, like a few other states, legalized recreational use of marijuana.

In a sector where employers like himself tend to rely on Latino workers, Mr. Russow tried to diversify three years ago by recruiting white workers, vetting about 80 people. But, he said, “As soon as I say ‘criminal background check,’ ‘drug test,’ they’re out the door.”

Testing dates to the Reagan administration. The 1988 Drug-Free Workplace Act required most employers with federal contracts or grants to test workers. In 1991, Congress responded to a deadly 1987 train crash in which two operators tested positive for marijuana by requiring testing for all “safety sensitive” jobs regulated by the Transportation Department. Those laws became the model for other employers. Some states give businesses a break on workers’ compensation insurance if they are certified as drug-free.

Read more here.