Truckers and addiction

This ^^^^^^^

 

I am fat. I was a whole lot fatter. Society did not cause that. My love of food and the wrong types of food did that. My lack of exercise did that. My own bad decisions caused my weight. The worst thing i ever did for my health was get my cdl. I spent over 15 years pegged on kill. Working 16-18hr days, sleep 5 and go again. Hard to hold a weight or lose weight when you sit on your butt for 12+hrs a day holding a steering wheel. Since i bought my truck & started my business, i’ve left the rat race & changed the way i operate. Thus after all these years i gained control of it. Again i can’t blame any person or corporation, or Doctor. I did what i did.

As for the whole facebook thing sorry about it, i don’t have facebook never did, never will. I have an instagram, should say i had an instagram. I realized how much time i was wasting on it & dumped it. Lucky if log in once a month now. Herd mentality doesn’t make things right. It just makes it arguably acceptable. I say arguably, because i’d argue it lol. Imo it goes back to when you were a kid and mom said “if Jimmy jumped off a bridge, would you?” Well of course not. Unless girls were there lol.

 

This is a touchy subject for me. I don't have any sympathy for a drug addict. As for trucking, I don't believe in second chances even though I have drivers who went through the SAP program and came on board without any signs or issues - they get drug tested a lot more than usual. AND they know exactly how I feel about drug addicts and they know there is no second chance with me, they screw up, they are out where ever that truck is.

When I started my fleet, the very first accident that one of the trucks was involved in was caused by someone wasted on cannabis. There were five vehicles involved other than the car that caused the accident, 5 people died because of someone was addicted to drugs. The impact of this is felt today, the driver of my truck at the time never drove a truck again, he has a hard time just being in a car and he rides a bike in any and all weather to and from his job which is 5 mile ride each way.

This was the first time and worst, there has been two others and one of my drivers was killed by someone who passed out driving, cross into on coming traffic and hit my drivers car head on. The pos survived, he had drugs in his system, admitted it in court and still he got a second chance.

 

In a nutshell, many industries that are dangerous, safety oriented, or require quick reaction / response times, the individuals must be be clean, sober, & drug free. Otherwise, don't work in these industries.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

The absolute sheer driving force of our national economy - without truck drivers, our entire national economy would come to an absolute standstill - if not outright be dead.

Over the mountains, through the woods, into the valleys, coast to coast, from sea to shining sea - truck drivers can and do go anywhere and everywhere, every day, every night, all year round.

 

In April, it will have 11 years clean for me. I had a bad addiction to marijuana so I sympathize and empathize completely. When you have a drug addiction, it's going to be difficult to impossible to get understanding from other drivers. The lion share of them are conservative and really opt not to relate to people who don't think or act like them. It's really hard to kick a habit like that and until one has walked in an addicts shoes, I don't think they should be critical of a drug addict, in my opinion. An addict needs to have love and understanding in order to have a chance to beat the addiction. I get it, sure we know how the industry is, but at the same if a driver has an addiction and he'd like to have an outlet in the form of another driver, I can't understand all the judgment. We are supposed to help each other, right? Unfortunately there a lot of self righteous drivers, whole bunch of them on this site. They know who they are too. Anyway, most likely the addiction came long before getting a CDL, like mine did. You know how the industry works, but it ain't that easy to kick the addiction. It took more legal issues, having kids, and #### near losing everything for me to wake up. I loved marijuana back then, but I had to come to grips with the waybthe society views marijuana. I had to come to grips with the way the industry views marijuana. Most importantly, I had to come to grips with the fact that I may want everything, but everything I can't have. I wanted to get back on the road, amd I wanted to be able to provide for my family without the stress of worrying about a drug test. You gotta pick and choose battles and the battle of trying to make marijuana accepted by everyone and every industry is one that can't be won by any addict. Even if it becomes legal, it's only so far the average person can go with thay addiction. You'll still have many industries where it's frowned upon. So with all that being said, a trucker who has an addiction can come here, TTR, for support. TTR is a start. There are folks that a driver can talk to. I'm willing to talk with those who have an addiction, I've been there. There other good people on here as well that won't judge and can offer resources. I don't really think it's important whether a driver with an addiction is viewed as an outcast because there is always someone that can help.

 

Nowadays being "Normal" sucks

 

You do realise that you are still actually subject to all the drug testing requirements, random and dot 2 year card etc etc etc even if you are a single truck owner operator under your own authority right?

Marijuana will fail you even if you only did that in a state that its legal in, federally its not legal, and trucking is under Fmcsa substance use restrictions, emphasis on the FEDERAL.

Im not saying anything is "right" or "fair", but the laws and regs are what they are.

Just because you are 26,000 and under, doesnt get away from the cdl etc drug testing program, theres a lot of provisos that mean you are still probably subject to fmcsa regs, crossing state lines for any money is the one to drill down on. You will probably find that a GOOD lawyer could technically find a way to win in court, but equally an incompetent lawyer could probably win the case AGAINST you in court much more easily.

Flying under the radar is not the test

 

I think most who use don’t realize the impairments they have because they tend to find a way to manipulate in their own minds how they are not hindered by their addiction. This of course is the addiction telling them how ok it is so the person can continue to do things that harm them and could harm others.

I am pretty liberal on the use of weed. I don’t use it but I really don’t care who does (provided they are not driving any motorized vehicle). I would not care if it was legalized in all 50 states. That being said… would you want your pilot on a 737 Max (yes the one like likes to crash and Boeing slid through the certification) to be anything less than 100% sober. Would you want the guy at loves to be installing your left front steer tire high during the process?
Would you put a known drug user behind the wheel of your own truck and have your wife and kids ride directly in front of them on 635 in Dallas during construction and rush hour?

Now, I think I know what you are getting at with where does a driver go for help once they realize they have a problem and still be able to continue the career? Good question. I feel there should be an easier way for them to get help without the risk of being fired. I mean eve. The military has a route to get help if the person seeks it out. I could see myself having a hard time with hiring that person myself in the future though and maybe that is bad. But there is a ton of money and lawyer liability in play here. Imagine one of those trucking lawyers coming after the company owner after an accident once they find out they hired an addict if 5 years later they killed a family while high.

I would say with conviction (this coming from someone who has not taken a drink for over 31 years for more than one reason). if you feel you have a drug or alcohol problem, get out of the truck and into a place of help and get it under control before you are caught. Leave the trucking industry for now. Get a non safety compliant job and get fixed and then once you are better go back to trucking without a stain on your record or your conscience. No one needs to know where you were when you are clean. All this Bullshat about this and that I guarantee many have skeletons they want no one to know about but will tell you how you need to be perfect.

 

Just say NO. How hard is that to understand??

 

Life isn't easy, fair, or comfortable. None of those are excuses for doing the wrong thing. If you do the wrong thing you are making your own life more difficult. Nobody with a family history of alcoholism was forced to drink their first drink. If they grew up seeing adults have problems due to alcoholism, for example, they had more incentive to avoid alcohol than anyone else in the world. The Devil and leftists will always make doing the wrong thing seem more fun or easy than doing the hard work life requires. None of those people will be around to pull you out of the ditch later. They aren't your friends they are your enemies telling you lies you may have wanted to hear.