"Peter Duniho" wrote in message
...
"Jim Fisher" wrote in message
. ..
[...]
Back in my younger years, I quit smoking pot because I got a job that did
random drug testing.

Did you quit smoking pot because they were doing drug testing? Or because
the job was incompatible with smoking pot?

I quit ONLY because of testing. NO other reason. At the time, I was a
young, stupid, pot-smokin', womanizin', party-eight-nights-a-week, and
livin' for the weekend kinda guy. I had an opportunity to double my income
and all I had to do was quit one of those things. DEAL!

During my employment (which involved shift work and long, lonely hours in a
high-tech control room) I stepped outside to take just two little puffs of
pot. I was scared **itless the rest of the night and never did it again.

So, it was only later on in my employment that I found that smoking pot and
being in control of high pressure narural gas lines was a Really Stupid,
incompatible thing to do.

The former is a pretty idiotic approach to the issue,

Quitting something that is bad for you because of rules that were imposed on
me was a bad idea? I'd bet a whole dollar that there's a jillion former
pot-heads flying today who quit because of drug testing.

I'd bet a dollar a lot of them are reading this right now but are too
chicken to admit it.

IMHO, if a person is sober on the job, it doesn't matter what they are
doing off the job. Drug testing does not distinguish between the two, and
discriminates against people simply because of their lifestyle.

A held that stance years ago. Now I realize that more-than-occaisional drug
use is a sever character flaw and not a flaw I want in a Captain or FO.

Maybe if I thought that drug testing was really being done out of a
genuine concern for people's safety, I'd feel differently. But I'm not
convinced that drug testing enhances safety all that much, and it's clear
that the primary push for drug testing is being done by the people who
stand to make lots of money doing it (as with various security regulations
and similar social expenditures).

Then we will agree to disagree.


--
Jim Fisher