Why so many questions about drugs, drug tests and criminal convictions?

I drove for about 10 years, but I've been out of the industry for 3. Somehow I managed to get into healthcare IT and the position before the one I'm in now (I'm currently a Senior IT Analyst for a health insurance company) was at a large hospital and their policy was that 100% of new employees are screening during hire and 50% of current employees are screened randomly each fiscal year.

I know several people, mainly nurses, that work for that hospital and they are all addicts (pot, heroin, & cocaine are the usual drugs of choice). The nurses are just really good at not getting caught.

 

the military is having trouble finding people with no arrests or are in decent shape.
it's a new societal norm.
normal, defined as, being what is actually the majorities prevalent behavior at the time.

 

It's no joke Buddy. Seen a driver get a DUI at the Sundance Port of Entry just a week ago.
Since the legal limit for a CDL holder is half that of any Drivers License Holder in Wyo. He blew like a .09 which put him over the limit.
The legal limit is .08. For a CDL it's .04. He blew twice the limit for a CDL. In Wyoming

 

Yeah, nothing could be further from the truth. The “hard core opiate users” can’t go 2-3 days without a fix. 2-3 days might as well be 2-3 lifetimes.

They’re not using because they want to destroy their careers, marriages, credit etc etc. Theyre using because they’re addicted! Withdrawals start within 2 hours- none of them are making it 2-3 days. I can say, without a doubt, that’s a fact!!!

 

I am going out on a limb and say that the Nurses probably know darn well the half life of everything they put into the poor people. Wait a certain amount of time and BING More meds please... That happened to me in my last stay, right at the expiration of certain meds ima hitting that stupid button. I started counting time in between and it matched google results on medicines I took.

 

When they had tried "Longs" as a experiment last year which means that it's supposed to say be a 12 hour pill. Oxycodone ER is one example. It takes about 2.4 hours to kick in two hours up after that (Almost 5 hours in...) and helps pain for roughly 4 and then burns off and down in 3... which means you are waiting hours for the next dose) For certain patients when they take pain medicine, any source of pain incurred after a dose is magnified. I only had the ER versions of three seperate meds at night only for three total months last year One was ineffective (Anti abuse XTampaER which was really dangerous because it's like eating a good and plenty without anything coming or going mentally) and two were not exactly suited. The old medicine such as mid 90's era Oxycontin were not allowed and Demerol was disallowed because of seizures they say. (Ya right, I can take 4x 80 a day for 3 weeks no problem)

I grew wise and stay with the shorts meaning 40 minutes up, pain relief for roughly 3 to 4 depending on activity level which really increases and a hour off. 6 times a day is round the clock, but they limit you to 4 times a day to a certain dose. The wait time between doses is not that bad. What you learned to do was save two before bed so that you took one and right about 1.5 hours hit the second. GO to bed and end up staying in it all night for good sleep instead of waking up exactly 4 hours later.

I beg the moderators pardon with this posting, most people who do not themselves have a doctor's care in this kind of managament of pain or know anyone in the family sick from cancer, ternimal pain etc having to base whatever activity around the sweet spot of each dose. If I wanted to lump freight in that trailer I would start at 40 minutes after a pill and quit 3 hours later exactly. If I am lucky I wont need that long to move 48000. The problem begins when the drug wears off and the ACTUAL pain kicks in from that excessive work you cannot get caught up So you take extras. Then you run out early then you sit there for two to 6 days at the end of the month waiting for the mandatory 30 day refill at the doc. They already know through the BP, drug screen and so on that you are out and in pain etc. It's a endless cycle.

The State last year implemented several laws to catch those running out early. Random drug pill counts in the original bottle. (I wound not be surprised if they start chipping these lids to record opening, shutting and number of pills pulled at date time stamps...) and random drug tests meaning you are called to the doc to account for the medicine at any time each month. Maybe several times a month. When you go to a doc it's 100 to see him, 150 for the drug test and another 100 for the med tech to count your pills for better or worse. Should you be detected short you are taken off the pain program and kicked out. Then your name is entered into a DAC like data base as a abuser, addict etc.

THERE is the problem.

Two weeks ago I think now they started holding hearings in Congress Committees. They made the deicsion to force the US Postal Service to begin recording physically all mail coming from overseas, particularly people ordering drugs online overseas and getting them at the house direct US Mail. Arrests have already begun and interdictions have increased essentially vertically. Fentenyal is the new problem from China and Opiates from places overseas that don't need a script from anyone and will take your money and mail you however many you need, want and however big a dose.

Regarding the last thought about the power of addiction, the need to reach for the pill bottle and take a pill now is really powerful for those who have run out early. It's about 30 hours roughly before the first problems of withdrawal kicks in, emotional tears, sweating, no sleeping, high blood pressure, and so on across the board increasing until the patient is on a stone or concrete pad because it's very soft to sleep on that directly than a actual bed. (You laugh, but that is one of the things that happen) at the worst case scenario the pain levels increase and immobilizes the person until you get more drugs into them. They can simply die right there without it. And the powerful mental force that drives them to sell your parents, mortgage the world and sell the rest of the human race into slavery (Hypothetical... to show the power and scale of such a push...) to get a few more pills to stop the problems another day.

What most people don't understand is that if you gave a normal person, say a healthy trucker with no drug use history one of these pills he's showing a little drool and MMMM medicine highway in his head, he's gone no more ow for a while. Not very awake either.

But you can give a thousand pills to a addict and it wont be but a drink of water. Consider that.

Me? Ive been clean months now pending additional surgerys being planned and several other procedures. I like being clean actually. (I don't like it but you live to get used to it) and there is no more of that silly need to have a thousand pills in the pocket. In fact if they did give me a thousand it will sit in the safe untouched for a long time, add another thousand and so on. After a time when these medicines are outlawed they will become assets. *Shrugs. HA. No.. this is not my intent. But it goes to show you what people will do if they think for a moment that they will get one up and over Dear Uncle Sam who is constantly bent on essentially Prohibition 1930's Era all over again. Only much more broad and extreme.

 

So you’re saying there’s no bracket in trucks that comes standard for my morphine drip bag? Bummer

 

First off the drug testing method used as a standard is the most flawed form of drug testing that can be used .
Urine rarely catches drug addicts in the trucking industry because in general if a TRUCKER is using drugs it's likely an upper so he can keep up with his or her multiple log books and 26 hour shifts . The industry knows this . Furthermore is the fact that in 8 hours most drugs are out of the system with a gallon or two of water . The one exception is the least addictive substance on the planet ... no not sugar , sugar is actually more addictive . It's marijuana .
The new problem is that it's being legalized and decriminalized and therefore because of how it works in ingestible form is becoming a new favorite date rape drug . If you mix THC oil or say THC infused juice mix with an alcoholic beverage the effect is the same as drinking multiple drinks . Also the high creeps up on people the same as just drinking to get drunk creeps up . ( I actually know this from personal experience and even though I don't use drugs , a night of bar hopping cost me my home because I failed a drug test 2 weeks later ) .
Now since ELDs are required there are so few drivers using paperlogs that the urine test is no longer cost effective , since drivers can't pop some uppers and drive for 26 straight hours , therefore the hair follicle testing will become the norm . Hair follicle testing , when used properly , can actually differentiate between drug USE and DRUG EXPOSURE . ( again I actually went through thus and it's the hair follicle test I passed 2 weeks prior to failing a urine test that caused all the EXPERTS to defend me and still are defending me ) . When someone is tested by hair follicle testing once every 3 to 4 months ( not even at a random pattern ) the test can prove derisively whether a failure is from USE or EXPOSURE because USE builds up in the hair and EXPOSURE is a spike .
Truth is if the industry cared about safety as much as they claim then hair follicle testing would already be the norm .
The real question is how will the trucking industry handle medical marijuana when it is lowered down from a schedule 1 drug ? I refuse to use any pain killers or medicine other than Motrin IB because I have watched good God fearing people become addicts and even lose their lives to drugs given to them by doctors ... I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF IT WRITTEN ANYWHERE IN THE HISTORY OF MAN THAT SOMEONE DIED after smoking marijuana though . Just saying ( I KNOW THERE RECENTLY WAS A THC RELATED DEATH BUT THAT DID NOT INVOLVE MARIJUANA BUT A HIGHLY REFINED AND POTENT THC PRODUCT which by the way is not natural marijuana , hey I failed a drug test and was told to educate myself ... I have )

 

I agree. I don't know of any test that will show a lawful consumption of THC as does Alcohol or illegal drugs provided that you run certain tests in a hospital after a traffic stop or some such for the blood draw.

I have seen people who are essentially God Fearing and very good people, solid bedrock as it were become addicts over time. If these are lost, there must be no hope for me right? Or anyone.

I think by now America has given up a war on illegal drugs from the 80's PCP, angel dust, china White, and god only knows what else is changed to a war against a addicted nation unable to get employment because of dirty drug tests. Hell the last check of the M series numbers showed about 96 million out of 330 able bodies not working in our work force which is roughly 2014 data.

Little Rock has a Tattoo store. You pay the man for tats. Now he is running a special in which you bring drugs to dump into the police take back box and get a free tat. Woah.... (Am not into tats but you can imagine the draw...)

They always tell you to educate yourself. I am and have been a pain patient for many years from wear and tear associated with trucking. I have spent most if not all my 30 years out there telling that ER doctor no narcotics for that OW because I intend to get unloaded and drive on down the road to Texas or wherever later that day. Hurry up and patch it Doc, let's go get me out of here. Dispatch is yelling already. And Ive taken hits in trauma before. Well the chickens finally came home to roost.

The world must be laughing at us. Collectively. I don't feel very good for our People right now for what has been done and the results of trying to get ahold of the Society that has gone wild. And we have children growing up into this mess? Oy....

 

We caught more nurses physically stealing drugs than we did drug testing them....drugs are tracked carefully and any excessive use was identified by software. The theft/discharge rate was under 1%.

Nurses preferred the cleaner hospital drugs over the dirtier street drugs.