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Comment by antisyzygy | Hacker News Reader

I can tell you right now if any job required a drug test, I wouldn't work there.

I use cannabis sometimes but it's more the principal of it.

It's a privacy violation and positive results don't actually mean you're intoxicated on the job. What people do in their free time is nobodies business so long as it's not harming other people.

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> I can tell you right now if any job required a drug test, I wouldn't work there.

Airline pilots? People operating dangerous machinery?

So why is getting shitfaced the night before flying a plane or jumping in a 20 story crane okay but not smoking a joint?

That's the big difference. A breathalyzer tells if you're right now actively impaired. Cannabis tests simply show that sometime in the past 30 days you smoked. Doesnt show active impairment.

But the real reason why cannabis was so heavy handed criminalized was because it was a "black, hippie, and anarchist" drug. https://www.aclu.org/issues/smart-justice/war-marijuana-blac...

We might actually be turning that around, only after 90 years.

Mouth swabs are a more reasonably analog to breathalyzers for cannabis, although even with those the detection period can be up to 48-72 hours. But still, much better than the months long detection period for the more common urine tests.

My hope is once its legalized fully, more effort can be put into researching and designing more sensitive tests until we have something that is equally as capable as breathalyzers are(which is questionable in and of itself, but I'll settle for equal treatment under the law for now rather than aiming for perfection).

Because cannabis can have effects up to a week after if I remember correctly. And it’s not very predictable. Alcohol is cleared out at a predictable rate and has no effect after a few hours, you’ll just be tired.

Marijuana’s effects last about one to three hours. A bit longer if ingested. There might technically be longer-term effects noticeable in a clinical setting, but nothing to a degree that would impact somebody’s ability to function at a typical level.

To my understanding "being tired" (which is absolutely part of being hungover the next day after a night of heavy drinking) is comparable and according to some sources pretty much equivalent to being "under the influence" in terms of how much it can impair you when operating heavy machinery.

I know a couple railroad engineers. They basically had to give up drinking because they could lose their job.

They do some kind of test that can pick up if you drank in the last couple days.

The way they assign shifts too causes the problems. If a shift pops up, they wanna take it, and that could happen at any time.

In any case I'd wager it's related to the hangover problem. You don't want a tired, distracted (by headaches or whatever), grumpy person moving 12000 tons.

You did NOT remember correctly. The only way you're going to have effects for a week is by using it for a week! The effects are VERY predictable, as studies have shown first-hand through trials for many decades. The only thing that isn't absolutely certain is an individual's rate of processing THC-COOH, which is only a leftover metabolite of what was once psychoactive THC (THC-A). You will absolutely test positive for THC-COOH a week after a single usage, sometimes up to a month; because it's stored in your fat. For this reason, it can even be detected up for multiple months in heavy users! An inactive metabolite is unable to cause any psychoactive effects.

The FAA prohibits pilots from drinking 8 hours before a flight. They further recommend 24 hours of abstention. It’s not okay, Zircom.

https://www.faa.gov/pilots/safety/pilotsafetybrochures/media...

cannabis tests check 30 days, not 8 hours. Hangovers can happen past 8 hours as well. Balls in your court, w0de0.

How would you know that someone smoked a joint the night before or 5 minutes before the shift?

With alcohol, breathalyzers provide an easy way to immediately detect the impairment.

There's a difference between using 2 days ago and testing positive on a piss test, and being actively intoxicated.

Nobody should be intoxicated on the job.

However if they smoked a joint yesterday they shouldn't lose their job today when it's already out of their system.

Sure. Not jobs for me. I wouldn’t do it either out of principle. Someone else can.

What exactly is “dangerous machinery”? I frequently operate overhead cranes, lifting 0,5-5000 kilos. I also smoke pot. To be frank, I would be able to do my job somewhat high, but not drunk. Smoking a joint the day before work has minimal impact on my performance, I would argue it increases it because of a good nights sleep. Drinking alcohol on the other hand…

I wonder if there has been any studies around marijuana impairment and vehicle operation?

> Airline pilots? People operating dangerous machinery?

As long as they are rested and alert when on the job, there is zero reason to care what they do in their private time off.

Again, how would you make sure that they don't lie about it?

I worked at a California startup that got aquired by a huge east coast corporation. At the all hands where the east coasters were introduced, one of them announced that we would all have to get drug tested within 2 weeks. We just looked at each other and then slow rolled them for the next month, lol. Eventually we all went and got tested together and no one got fired.

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