Not just your average(daily) I wanna get high and drive around in a big truck question...

Google : SAP Program (his domicile state)
He'll have to complete that program before he can drive again.
@Mark Kling may have some details on the program.

 

Did he have a prescription for it?

 

You indicated that mother in law has script for hydrocodone.

She game him, or diverted 12 over 35 days. This is a big problem. If this person (Your employee that was drug tested) has NO script that is valid written to him, does not show up in that state's pharmacy board record which is kept in near real time of every pain pill dispensed to anyone and shows up hot on a drug test then the state has enough they need to prosecute both the employee and also the mother in law.

Chances are, your mother in law is a pain contracted patient. Once it becomes clear that 12 doses were diverted, she will lose the ability to continue being issued that medicine. And probably be written into a national data base designed to record dirverters, abusers and sellers of pain medicine.

It's a bigger problem than just a employee being hot on the drug test. And it will probably be dealt with in it's own time, rather quickly.

There is no point in debating the new law. It's in effect of this year and that's the new reality.

Now... if that employee with the OW went to a doctor and was issued a legal script for a short period of time until that ow heals then he has a defense. But frankly since he got it off someone else that is a problem. Several laws are broken here.

I am a pain patient myself have been for almost a decade. I am held to account for every single pill I am written for. If I am short one at a random count and drug test, it is grounds for the Law to prosecute me. And I will not be a part of that type of medical help again.

Edited.

This is not a giving a hard time more than what is to be expected of something like this. I would like to think that if someone hurt that much and requires strong medicine for the legs or whatever the pain is, it's best that person gets looked at at the doctor before being permitted to continue trucking. Maybe there is something wrong that can be fixed. But this is moot because he got the medicine from the mother in law. And here we are.

He will have to go through about a year or more of a program, if it is still possible. Either way it's safe to assume his trucking days have been suspended if not over.

 

There was a fellow that worked where I work kinda did the same thing. He was taking something (thought Percoset) for an alleged back problem. He was getting the pills from his girlfriend who had a perscription. He was called for a random and failed. The sample was too cold. So he had to go back and give a second sample (this time with HIS piss). He failed, got fired. Two weeks later I passed him driving a truck for another company. As far as I'm aware, he's still driving. Dunno how he got away with it.

The boss told me if he'd have gone through the SAP program and got clean he'd still have a job here.

 

And it is likely that back of his is still bothering him. So he will be a constant risk of using pain medicine or alcohol again.

 

I'd say so. Without derailing the thread, I ended up running the truck he was in while he worked here, and I can see why he had back pain. He had the seat on the floor, and reclined way back, with the lumbar support fully inflated. Kinda like riding in a sports car. I adjusted it to where I wanted it, and after 600 miles I felt like someone beat the hell outta me

 

Once you take someone else’s script,( hard stuff), and get caught, there’s nothing for you as far as drug laws are concerned. That’s the culture we live in today with the opioid epidemic and all. He really should’ve gone to his doctor with his pain. Even then there is a limit to drugs taken with his cdl. Sounds like he should’ve considered these factors before taking a serious prescribed drug. That’s on him and no one else. As a otr driver working for my retirement, he gets no sympathy from me.