Legalized Weed Issues ....

I can not believe this thread is still alive

 

I think the place has 2 separate floors user get to use the second floor.... also this bar is a Private club (members only)... or thats what I take from the sign in front of the bar..

 

The issue at hand is whether certain states legalizing marijuana will have any affect on DOT rules, as well company rules, and the simple answer is NO.

Trucking companies abide by FEDERAL rules and regulation, and marijuana is still classified as an illegal narcotic under FEDERAL laws. Thus forth, there will be no changes in the "legality" of marijuana in context to trucking, period.

My personal opinion is that it should just be legalized at a federal level, period. But that's not the case, and it won't be for a long, long time. And simply because certain states legalize it, doesn't mean you can get "stoned" simply because your terminal is based in one of those states, or because your driving through it.

As for the "second-hand smoke" excuse, it's not accepted as a legitimate excuse when failing a drug test in the private sector or the government sector, trucking included.

 

Well it would not matter if they made pot legal in North Dakota because you can't smoke anything in public or in any building unless it is your house. You can't even puff on one of the electronic cigs that have absolutely no effect on anyone around you.

 

I suspect there will be a slew of test cases that end up creating the answers to most of these questions. Probably the first to be defined will be the issue of what exactly constitutes under the influence when it comes to THC. And that will likely be followed quickly by updates to the DWI/DUI laws in the relevant states.

At this point I think everyone is holding off on dealing with these issues because they want to see if these laws will actually stick first. I've heard talk that there could be a pretty good 10 amendment fight in all this before we're done. Time will tell on that I suppose.

At any rate I think it will be quite some time before we see any changes which effect CDL holders or we may never see any changes at all. But this whole deal does make me wonder what changes will be seen in other business sectors. For instance its pretty standard policy at most fortune 100 companies to random drug test and fire on failed tests. Could we see that practice ruled to be discriminatory now for residence of states where recreational use is legal? Its going to be interesting to see how this all plays out.

 

Actually 13 were fired, and just this week all 13 were re-instated.
It doesn't have to be a tangled web; we just adjust to our evolving society, or be left behind.

 

It's not a second-hand issue at all, to begin with...

There are those that may argue, but according to the data you are not going to fail a drug test because of second-hand smoke. There's simply not enough being directly inhaled, and therefore not enough to stick to any fatty cells or tissue, period. If you were to fail a urine or hair follicle test because of second-hand THC, it would have to be an INCREDIBLE amount being smoked in a very small and confined area. So sure, if you sit in a small closet with 3 people smoking a large amount of pot, you MIGHT absorb enough to fail a urinalysis, but CERTAINLY stupid enough to fail a test of common sense. There is no LEGAL scenario of being able to legally smoke marijuana in public places such as bars, but even if a joint or two do get lit up in that situation, you certainly wont fail a drug screening for it. This is a common sense issue here folks. Marijuana has an extremely loud and indistinct smell....if you smell it, and worry about how much of it you indirectly absorb, move over a few seats or ask them politely to take it outside. As for the scenario of a trucker losing a job over any of this is more mythical than reality, seriously.

 

Uh-huh. And you know what would happen. Just like Nevada and Montana tried to stand up to them when they stuffed that stupid 55 MPH national speed limit down our throats. The feds simply cut off funding of everything to the states, until the states did what the feds wanted.

It won't be any different with this. As long as the states base their budget on so called "FREE FED MONEY," (of course there IS no such thing,) they pretty much have to toe the federal mandates.

Well, when it comes to driving impairment, you don't need a "minimum" amount. To prove under the influence, all they need to do, is show your driving pattern, (which is probably what lead to the traffic stop in the first place,) show the failure of any Field Sobriety Test, and show that you had a substance in your blood.

It does not even need to be a "controlled" or "prescribed" substance. OTC drugs such as benadryl will easily qualify. People are found guilty of DUI alcohol quite often, even if their BA is lower than the mandate. All that is needed is to show impairment.