Newbie/Wannabe Attitudes

I'm in the US. I said county, not Country.

All I'm doing is pointing out that it isn't helpful, and quite redundant when someone chastises a guy who already pointed out that he knew it was wrong.

I have no problem with a company that doesn't want to hire a person for whatever reason.

 

That's a debate for another thread. I may be wrong, but I don't see anywhere in the Constitution where the Fed's can outlaw marijuana. --Remember prohibition? Total failure, but at least they tried it with a Constitutional Amendment. I totally support a State's right to outlaw marijuana. The best I can tell it's not protected under the US Constitution so the 10th Amendment applies.

I don't drink or smoke. And I don't have a problem with it not being allowed. But I will continue to point out hypocrisy. If a guy asks about BAC people just post the facts about how long a guy needs to dry out to be legal. A guy posts about pot and the armchair preachers come out of the woodwork LoL.

And thank you for pointing out that boozing it up is not acceptable. THAT'S BEEN MY WHOLE POINT. Even in this day and age we are pretty laxed when talking about alcohol consumption mere hours before duty, but boy or boy, if a guy smokes a joint WEEKS before reporting for duty... String him up!

And btw, the pee test is not a NO tolerance test, it is a LOW tolerance test. You can actually have marijuana in your system. Just not too much. Technically a guy could be a pot smoker and drive. It would be absolute lunacy in my book, but it's possible.

 

Im glad you quit drinking at 18. When did you start? lol

 

I've noticed tooooo many ppl don't get the concept of a drug test or think they can blow by a DOT physical. Or even I've been gone 2wks WTF you mean they don't have to give me a wkend off?! Lol I'm saying this as a whole not pointing my breaker bar at anyone particular. If you're gonna have 1 last whoo rah do it a couple months before you take any step toward a truck. If you're too embarrassed to have a man check your health work at a desk. If you think by law you have to have a wkend off check the laws and recap/restart. I'm wet behind the ears on experience but a truck or the lifestyle I've known 28 yrs. I hate seeing the attitudes of new drivers. Its no wonder why young drivers with a good head on their shoulders have such a hard time. The few of us have to compete with ALL the ######### wannabes. I played with the idea of getting into this for 8 yrs before I finally got my CDL I didn't just wake up and say imma be a gol durn supper trucker. New drivers don't understand only 1 in 4 on average of new drivers will make it past 6 months or a year if they're lucky. There was 5 in my CDL class and I'm the only 1 still rolling the rest went back to their 9-5 jobs within 6 months. I've kinda got off the subject so ill shush

 

I am by no means an expert, and your company may have some other standard they follow. But aren't we talking about the standard DOT FMCSA drug test?

If so, then yes. When talking about marijuana there is a threshold of 50 ng/ml. If you are under that amount you pass. I have no idea how much 50 ng/ml really is, but it is certainly a "trace"

 

Every drug test has a tolerance level. Even when you get a re-test which usually includes a lower tolerance level(15ng/ml compared to 50ng/ml I believe), there is still a tolerance level. There are even drug tests that are called zero tolerance drug tests, but they still have a tolerance, just lower usually. Why they call it that I don't know. Above the tolerance positive, below negative.

Did we really need a separate thread because of an argument in another?

 

Scott101 is correct. The DOT drug panels have cut off levels for all of the drugs, they're not just testing for "traces". They're testing to see if the donor is USING the drugs.

If they were testing for "traces" we may all test positive as there are "traces" of primarily prescription drugs in much of the groundwater in the US. Sad but true.

BTW, the DOT-regulated drug screens are not testing for the presence of the actual drug, they test for the presence of the metabolites our bodies produce when the drugs are in our systems. And they test to see if the amount of those metabolites exceed a pre-determined threshold. If yes, then the result gets reported to the MRO (medical review officer) and he/she conducts an interview with the donor to determine if there's a "valid medical reason" for the presence of those metabolites in the donor's specimen in the quantity necessary to exceed the cut off levels.

If the MRO determines that there is a "valid medical reason", then the result is reported to the employer as a NEGATIVE. If not, it's reported as a POSITIVE.

And just FYI, there is only one "valid medical reason" for the presence of THC metabolites in one's body from the DOT perspective, and that's if the donor has a current, valid prescription in their name for a drug called Marinol. It's basically THC in a pill and it's typically prescribed to cancer patients.

And no, the use of "medical marijuana" is not recognized as a valid treatment of any known medical condition by the DOT and is, in fact, on the list of substances that automatically disqualifies a person from being a DOT-regulated driver.

 

Just FYI, there is only one currently available reliable drug testing methodology that has a short "detection period" for THC and it's 24 hrs, and that's "oral fluids" testing.

Unfortunately "oral fluids" testing is not recognized by DOT for drug screening.

 

Kittyfoot didn't intend it to be that way . The original post was regarding newbies not having a serious attitude about the industry .
Scott101 insisted on multiple posts defending marijuana use . A positive drug test doesn't ban a driver for any longer than it would take to start an approved program and test clean . It's the employer's choice whether or not the person drives .