A sign of a culture in decay ?

[ironglow]

 ...Letting down our troops;
   Union workers charged with providing protective armor for our troops in the field, caught "doping up" during breaks from work;
 
     http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/11/28/union_workers_making_body_armor_caught_on_camera_smoking_marijuana.html

[jlwilliams]

  Outrageous.  This isn't like a 7-11 clerk smoking pot after work.  These people are doing a serious job, and getting high during a break. 

[SHOOTALL]

Ya'll must be out of the working world , Drugs are everywhere. I doubt there is a construction site where some form of drug abuse is not going on. And they build the buildings you go in , bridges you cross and homes you sleep in.

[yellowtail3]

Nothing new under the sun; in decades past, it was a flask being passed around.


On terms - I'll say that catching a buzz on the job does qualify as drug abuse, it's against employer policy, as opposed to use, which is no one's damned business (certainly not the states').

[SHOOTALL]

Nothing new under the sun; in decades past, it was a flask being passed around.


On terms - I'll say that catching a buzz on the job does qualify as drug abuse, it's against employer policy, as opposed to use, which is no one's damned business (certainly not the states').

goat skin before that 

[ironglow]

 Still not right and still a sign of moral decay.  Of course such drug use does not stand alone, we have plenty of indicators as to the deterioration of our culture.

[SHOOTALL]

the decay is its more acceptable now. Unions fight to save their jobs .

[ironglow]

the decay is its more acceptable now. Unions fight to save their jobs .

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   Really ?  Do the unions actually stoop to protect these dopers ?  I can see unions protecting the falsely accused or illegally canned for no fault of their own, but dope using isn't done "by accident"..

[SHOOTALL]

Yes they do , here if an employee is found drunk or using illegal drugs the company has to pay for treatment and allow him to keep their job in many union shops. In most cases they moniter the person for further abuse . Most non union shops just terminate employment.

[briarpatch]

I worked for a utility and if you were tested for drugs and tested positive.. out the door. We had the so called random test. Management was exempt. One thing that bugged me was. If you were called out after work, at night for example and you had a drink or two and told them because you could not be on the road. If they called you twice and you used the excuse even thought you were off they would have you put in the alcoholics program. I didnt drink but this just took the cake. 

[SHOOTALL]

I have a friend who is a welder. He has taken the random drug test every time it was given to his crew. He is the one who can pass.

[Old Syko]

I worked with a construction outfit just before I retired that employed a bit over 60 people.  The company was offered a job on airport grounds within highly restricted areas.  Myself and 2 others out of the 60 passed the drug test and background checks allowing us to enter.  The company owner failed the drug test miserably.  Whether this is a sign of cultural decay or not depends on personal opinion only.  No matter though, as has always been said, this has always existed in one form or another.  Too many have chosen to wear blinders that allow them to feel better about themselves and their own generations rather than actually see what has been going on around them for ever.

[jlwilliams]

  To me it really hs a lot to do with what work you are doing.  There is world of difference between sweeping floors stoned and manufacturing stoned.  Someone's going to get hurt.

[ironglow]

Shootall, 
  Unbelieveable; not only are some unionists addicted, but the employer has to pay for their cure whether it works or not.
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Shootall,  You friend is '"the one' who can pass..out of the whole crew ?
   
 Old Syko,  Two out of 60 pass ?  Incredible...did the firm get the job?  Can't see how, with only 2 out of 60 eligible.  I guess this culture is in worse shape than I even visualized.     
 
   Sigh..   I guess I'll never understand where a rational, adult person would ever even think of volunteering their reputation, livlihood and even their life to be given over to an addictive substance. 

[Old Syko]

   
 Old Syko,  Two out of 60 pass ?  Incredible...did the firm get the job?  Can't see how, with only 2 out of 60 eligible.   

Myself and the two other guys who passed the tests did the job.  The three of us always worked together as a three man crew for a reason.  No matter which company did the job I doubt the percentages would vary that much and this is well known especially in such a specialized industry.  Take any random number of people and test them for drug use, either illegal or prescription and add to that strict guidelines regarding legal history and the percentages that can pass are never over single digits.


The sickening thing is watching the lab truck pull up on a work site for random drug testing and seeing more fail than pass yet the job continues due to union influence.  It's nothing but a waste of time.   

[SHOOTALL]

Shootall, 
  Unbelieveable; not only are some unionists addicted, but the employer has to pay for their cure whether it works or not.
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Shootall,  You friend is '"the one' who can pass..out of the whole crew ?
   
 Old Syko,  Two out of 60 pass ?  Incredible...did the firm get the job?  Can't see how, with only 2 out of 60 eligible.  I guess this culture is in worse shape than I even visualized.     
 
   Sigh..   I guess I'll never understand where a rational, adult person would ever even think of volunteering their reputation, livlihood and even their life to be given over to an addictive substance. 

I agree with you but we live in a drug culture one that creates jobs for lots of people . We have presidents who admit to trying illegal drugs. We see the dealers living a rich lifestyle . Kids don't see the danger until hooked.

[ironglow]

Before I retired I worked for a "fortune 500" style company...electronics in satellites, cell phone, auto ignitio amd engine controls.  I worked in the automotive division, non-union and we had random drug testing.  Yes, some were caught in the net and quietly left..
  Our plant was about 30 miles from my house, off toward the city, so we had rural, suburban and urban employees.  It seems the urbanites were the more frequent failures.
  We had one lady..heavy, near retirement and very nice, who failed the test!  We were all shockedand asked each other.."not Pat"??  Well, when the investigation came through, it seems Pat was a habitual eater of poppy seed rolls..
    One time when my number came up and I went to take the test (right in the facility) and being a dept head, I was missed.  When I returned, upon being asked where I had been, I replied that I had to "go pee in a bottle for my brother".  Admittedly, a couple immediately asked how I managed to arrange where I could fill the bottle for my brother.
    Their mistake; they assumed I had a brother who worked in the same plant and for the same company...Fact is, my brother was the technician who worked with the firm who was doing the testing..so I filled the bottle for him to test..

[Old Syko]

The major concern of the idiots I worked around if they thought a drug test was coming was how much time they would be allowed to study.      Vast amounts of their time was spent studying the workarounds to keep from getting caught.  I've seen the pot smokers drink large bottles of vinegar thinking it would mask their usage.  You wouldn't believe some of the things they could be talked into doing thinking it would allow them to pass.      As if the drug usage isn't bad enough, when you include legal history you open even a bigger can of worms.  If we were to depend on only those of us who choose to stay reasonably straight, nothing would ever happen.   

[Pat/Rick]

Every construction site, every fabrication shop I've ever worked in had drugs present. Everyone.  It always made me laugh when I would hear that management was exempt, talk about giving a green light.

[Singleshotsam]

Ha!  I work as an IT support specialist in a major hardware distribuiton center and we have so many people get fired for drug use.  We just got a memo that stated we should encourage people we know to apply for jobs because we have 22 new job openings.

If this is a sign of cultural decay then what would you call the 60's lol!

[ironglow]

SingleshotSam asks;
     " If this is a sign of cultural decay then what would you call the 60's lol!"
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      How about the early matinee previews ? 
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   I guess I am out of step, but I cannot for the life of me understand why a grown, even half conscious person would voluntarily take these life-destroying chemicals and admixtures into their body...   It's so sad...

[Gary G]

It is because no one has to be responsible anymore. Screw up bad enough and there is some government program that will take care of you. And yep, it is easier than hard work.

[sidewinder319]

Drugs in the work place have a long and bad history. During the 1840s it was about impossible to find a sober man to do any kind of work. Unlike in the Roy Rogers movies, 1880s cowboys like modern teens fell to addictive drugs. The labor from China spread opium dens across the west.  The live stock owners could not keep enough men on the open range. The young men left their cattle to lay in opium dens along the Union Pacific Railroad. The Cattle Companies hired men to raid and shut down these dens. It seems we have not found the answer to this problem.

[powderman]

When I worked at wm the dairy mgr went through, I believe, 28 people before ONE passed the drug test. HEH, he worked a few days and said it was too hard. POWDERMAN. 

[ironglow]

We sure don't need this kind of traitorous activity going on;
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/authorities-find-32-tons-of-marijuana-in-latest-border-drug-smuggling-tunnel-in-san-diego/2011/11/30/gIQAMM2NDO_story.html
 
  Law enforcement says this one batch alone had a "value" of $65 million.  Of course, the whole pile wasn't worth a thin dime to many of us, but just how many truckloads of this trash has made it into our country just this year ?
   THen too; just how mant million$$$  or Billion$$$ have left our American economy and gone for direct support to the criminal cartels in Mexico and also to the terrorist organizations killling our troops overseas..and our citizens right here in the U.S. ? ?
   I am at a complete loss as to why American citizens would want to aid the enemy in killing our sons & daughters..
   http://www.picj.org/docs/issue3/The%20Taliban.pdf
 
  Am I too naive, why should they want to undermine our country ?  It would only seem natural that if they don't want to serve in our military...they could at least stop supplying funds for terrorist bombs, bullets and IEDs..that doesn't seem like too much to ask, does it ? 
  http://www.usborderpatrol.com/Border_Patrol90e.htm

[Old Syko]

If this is a sign of cultural decay then what would you call the 60's lol!

No conversation of this type is ever complete without someone referencing the 60s as though that decade was any different than any other.  The only thing that made it different was broadcasting technology allowed for more widespread knowledge of certain happenings.  There was little difference between the decade of the 60s and the roaring 20s other than the drugs of choice and the availability of information. 


We can't allow ourselves to be so naive as to think such things as drug abuse and lack of morals are a recent event.  Nor can we allow ourselves to believe it isn't as widespread as it is.  To think this pattern can be altered after all this time is just silly.  It has always existed and always will.   

[no guns here]

On the positive side... since 1987 I have worked with hundreds of the nation's finest Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and and even a Coast Guardsmen or three.  Our work is always around highly classified materials and secure facilities.  I have met only a mere handful who have been busted for drugs (I can really only think of three right off hand in 25 years).  The random test is 10% month, 100% per year.  Sometimes I have been called 4 months in a row to "golden flow".  PITA but there are a bunch of clean folks out there doing important jobs.  Lots of folks who like me have never smoked anything of anykind in their life.
 
 
NGH

[SHOOTALL]

On the positive side... since 1987 I have worked with hundreds of the nation's finest Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and and even a Coast Guardsmen or three.  Our work is always around highly classified materials and secure facilities.  I have met only a mere handful who have been busted for drugs (I can really only think of three right off hand in 25 years).  The random test is 10% month, 100% per year.  Sometimes I have been called 4 months in a row to "golden flow".  PITA but there are a bunch of clean folks out there doing important jobs.  Lots of folks who like me have never smoked anything of anykind in their life.
 
 
NGH

That is a good point I have not tried any illegal drugs either. But the fact is there is enough people doing so that it has changed America for the worst.

[yellowtail3]

That is a good point I have not tried any illegal drugs either. But the fact is there is enough people doing so that it has changed America for the worst.

Steve jobs smoked some weed and dropped some acid; I think he changed America the world for the better.

[mechanic]

If you work in the plants I go into, you will take a drug test annually at the lab of their choice and pass, or you don't go in.  You are also subject to random tests.  With the type of equipment I work on, I don't want anyone around me who might be stoned, or even hung over.  Too dangerous, not only for us, but for a lot of people in the plant.
 
Drugs and alcohol have no place in the workplace. 
 
Personally, I wish they would drug test people who draw from the gov.   I'm tired of my labor supporting other people's addictions.
 
Ben