Drug Testing
Press Conference To Expose Faulty Drug Test Kits Used Widely by Law Enforcement
The Marijuana Policy Project and Mintwood Media Collective will host a press conference at the National Press Club to release a new report that exposes faulty drug test kits used widely by law enforce
Weighing the scientific evidence for drug testing in the workplace as a safety intervention
The Centre for Addictions Research of BC and the BC Mental Health and Addictions Research Network present...
Weighing the scientific evidence for drug testing in the workplace as a safety intervention
Blogger Forces Drug Czar's Office to Correct False Information
We talked here a while back about the drug czar's misleading use of drug testing data to suggest that shocking numbers of weekend drivers are high on drugs. Well, Pete Guither actually went and did something about it, creating a petition for correction to the drug czar's misleading propaganda. And the best part is that it actually worked:
It may seem like a small victory at first glance, but the very notion of the drug czar's office actually accepting a correction from a reformer is pretty remarkable. Almost everything that office does is built on a foundation of deception, and if we're able to hold them accountable to the truth on any level, it begins to even the playing field as we make the case for reform. Pete may only have succeeded in correcting one specific lie, but in doing so, he may have prevented any number of similar lies from being told in the future. Awesome job.
EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY
Washington, DC
April 15, 2010
Mr. Peter Guither
909 W. Market Street
Bloomington, IL 61701
Dear Mr. Guither:
This letter is in response to the petition for correction that you emailed to the Office of the National Drug Control Policy on March 16, 2010. The sentence on the ONDCP website regarding the Department of Transportation study has been reworded to state âthat 16 percent of nighttime weekend drivers tested positive for a licit or illicit drug.â This should fully address the specific point raised in your correspondence.
Pursuant to Section III of ONDCPâs information Quality Guidelines, you have a right to request reconsideration if you believe appropriate corrective action has not been taken. Such a request must be filed within 30 days of notification of ONDCPâs response to your original request.
Sincerely,
Timothy J. Quinn
Chief of Staff
It may seem like a small victory at first glance, but the very notion of the drug czar's office actually accepting a correction from a reformer is pretty remarkable. Almost everything that office does is built on a foundation of deception, and if we're able to hold them accountable to the truth on any level, it begins to even the playing field as we make the case for reform. Pete may only have succeeded in correcting one specific lie, but in doing so, he may have prevented any number of similar lies from being told in the future. Awesome job.
Employment Discrimination Against Medical Marijuana Patients Must End
If 80% of Americans support medical marijuana, why do we keep hearing stories like this one:
She's not the one who should be embarrassed by this. TeleTech is the second company this month to get ugly press attention for discriminating against patients. In the current political climate, only an idiot would want their business associated with this sort of reckless cruelty and prejudice.
Unfortunately, those enforcing such arbitrary policies are still hiding behind claims of conflicting laws and vague liability concerns. It might be totally incoherent, but it goes to show how federal intransigence continues to leave patients vulnerable to abuse despite improvements in enforcement policy. It's time for the White House to move beyond the argument that medical marijuana raids are a "poor use of resources," and directly acknowledge that medical use is a basic human right.
Even the worst drug warriors will be the first to insist that patients aren't arrested and jailed in the war on medical marijuana. Shouldn't firing patients from their jobs be considered comparably reprehensible?
Jane Roe has suffered from severe migraines for years⦠Jane tried every prescription drug imaginable but none gave her relief. She finally found the answer after receiving authorization for medical marijuana from a doctor. Not long after that, Jane was hired at a company called TeleTech. Her position involved answering customer service calls for Sprint at TeleTech's Bremerton office. Jane was up front about her situation with the company from the very start.
Roe: "I knew that I already had medical marijuana; I didn't want to have to hide it. So I went to the Human Resources Department and provided them with a copy, they said they did not want one. They told me to still go take the drug test."
Jane did as she was asked and then began her training program. On her tenth day, she was called out of the training. She was told her drug test had come back positive and she would have to leave immediately. Jane felt humiliated. [KUOW.org]
She's not the one who should be embarrassed by this. TeleTech is the second company this month to get ugly press attention for discriminating against patients. In the current political climate, only an idiot would want their business associated with this sort of reckless cruelty and prejudice.
Unfortunately, those enforcing such arbitrary policies are still hiding behind claims of conflicting laws and vague liability concerns. It might be totally incoherent, but it goes to show how federal intransigence continues to leave patients vulnerable to abuse despite improvements in enforcement policy. It's time for the White House to move beyond the argument that medical marijuana raids are a "poor use of resources," and directly acknowledge that medical use is a basic human right.
Even the worst drug warriors will be the first to insist that patients aren't arrested and jailed in the war on medical marijuana. Shouldn't firing patients from their jobs be considered comparably reprehensible?
Judge Reprimanded for Illegally Drug Testing Random Guy
Imagine you're in court quietly observing someone else's trial, when suddenly, the judge starts pointing at you:
The whole thing is so flagrantly unconstitutional and illegal that Moore's fellow judges were forced to throw him under the bus:
Marchant tested negative for drugs, which was probably helpful in illustrating the absurdity of pulling random people aside with no justification and making them pee in a cup. I shudder to think that the outcome may have been different if he'd come up positive. Would Judge Moore have been hailed as a skilled professional who can pick potheads out of a crowd, instead of an out-of-control jerk who doesn't understand the most basic laws he's sworn to uphold?
It's seriously creepy to think that this guy's job is to interpret the law. Pete Guither asks:
Which is why I can't get excited about any form of punishment that falls short of permanently stopping this guy from deciding the legal fate of anyone ever again. Sure, no one was killed, falsely imprisoned, or otherwise substantially harmed by the incident, but it just reveals such a fundamental contempt for the Constitution that I refuse to believe it was a misunderstanding.
The problem is not that this judge was ignorant of the law, but rather that he deemed himself to be above it.
NASHVILLE (CN) - A judge in Dickson County, Tenn., had officers pull a spectator out of his courtroom "on a hunch," held him in custody and made him submit to a urinalysis for drugs, the man claims in Federal Court. Benjamin Marchant claims that General Sessions Judge Durwood Moore admitted that he "routinely drug-screens 'spectators' in his courtroom if he 'thinks' they may be under the influence of drugs or alcohol." Moore allegedly called it the "routine policy of the court."
The whole thing is so flagrantly unconstitutional and illegal that Moore's fellow judges were forced to throw him under the bus:
Moore acknowledged he had violated Marchant's rights and was censured by the Tennessee Supreme Court's Judiciary Court on May 1, 2009, the highest form of punishment short of seeking a judge's removal from the bench, according to the complaint.
Marchant tested negative for drugs, which was probably helpful in illustrating the absurdity of pulling random people aside with no justification and making them pee in a cup. I shudder to think that the outcome may have been different if he'd come up positive. Would Judge Moore have been hailed as a skilled professional who can pick potheads out of a crowd, instead of an out-of-control jerk who doesn't understand the most basic laws he's sworn to uphold?
It's seriously creepy to think that this guy's job is to interpret the law. Pete Guither asks:
How does this guy get to be a judge? You have to be better informed to get a cosmetology license.
Which is why I can't get excited about any form of punishment that falls short of permanently stopping this guy from deciding the legal fate of anyone ever again. Sure, no one was killed, falsely imprisoned, or otherwise substantially harmed by the incident, but it just reveals such a fundamental contempt for the Constitution that I refuse to believe it was a misunderstanding.
The problem is not that this judge was ignorant of the law, but rather that he deemed himself to be above it.
No Marijuana Smoking at the Dog-Sled Races
Apparently, there's no climate so inhospitable that the drug testers won't show up to collect everyone's urine:
The funny part is they've already been drug testing the dogs for several years. I just assumed that the mushers were wasted the whole time. I mean, you're racing a dog-sled through arctic conditions for 1,000 miles with no sleep. According to the comments on the article, some guy once won the thing completely jacked on coke.
It'll be embarrassing next year when no one finishes the Iditarod.
FAIRBANKS -- The Iditarod plans to test mushers for drugs and alcohol in March, a change many mushers have no problem with -- but one that three-time champion Lance Mackey scoffs at.
"I think it's a little bit ridiculous," Mackey said Wednesday night from his home near Fairbanks after a training run. "It is a dog race, not a human race. It (using a drug) doesn't affect the outcome of the race."
Mackey, a throat cancer survivor who has a medical marijuana card, admits to using marijuana on the trail and thinks his success has made some of his competitors jealous. [ADN]
The funny part is they've already been drug testing the dogs for several years. I just assumed that the mushers were wasted the whole time. I mean, you're racing a dog-sled through arctic conditions for 1,000 miles with no sleep. According to the comments on the article, some guy once won the thing completely jacked on coke.
It'll be embarrassing next year when no one finishes the Iditarod.
Even Cops Are Getting Screwed by Inaccurate Drug Tests
Via Radley Balko, this one is hard to believe:
Needless to say, this cocaine-ingested-through-oral-sex line sounds like the laugh-out-loud lame excuse of the century. I'm highly inclined to doubt that such a thing is even remotely possible, but as to the question of whether or not the officer was actually using cocaine, I donât know what to think. If his colleagues are to be believed, the story on this guy is that he's well known for not doing drugs. Supposedly, he's an "adherent of the 'straight edge' lifestyle that rejects substance use" and everyone knows he doesn't get high:
I don't know these people, but I trust them more than I trust the drug test itself, because drug tests are bullshit. They're just not accurate. If a bunch of people come forward complaining that someone got railroaded by a drug test, I'm going to assume that's exactly what happened. It's happened before.
Notwithstanding the absurdity of the officer's crazy oral sex explanation, I wouldnât be at all surprised if he's the innocent victim of a false positive drug test result. If officer Goldin is telling the truth, then it's worth taking a moment to contemplate the irony that a cop who lives by a vehement anti-drug philosophy ended up getting screwed over by one of the numerous fraudulent technologies designed to ruin the lives of drug users.
I wonder what he thinks of the drug war now, after finding himself on the receiving end of its virtually infinite incompetence.
A decorated ex-cop who claimed he tested positive for cocaine because he ingested the drug during oral sex with his girlfriend can't have his job back, a Manhattan judge has ruled.
Supreme Court Justice Eileen Rakower last month shot down helicopter pilot Jon Goldin's attempt to overturn his April 2008 dismissal from the NYPD.
Goldin, a 15-year veteran, tested positive for cocaine in October 2006 in a random drug test using hairs from his arm.
...
Goldin's lawsuit said the cocaine in his system was the product of "passive ingestion" from performing oral sex on girlfriend Coreen McCarthy, who, once he tested positive, admitted to him that she was a regular cocaine user. [New York Daily News]
Needless to say, this cocaine-ingested-through-oral-sex line sounds like the laugh-out-loud lame excuse of the century. I'm highly inclined to doubt that such a thing is even remotely possible, but as to the question of whether or not the officer was actually using cocaine, I donât know what to think. If his colleagues are to be believed, the story on this guy is that he's well known for not doing drugs. Supposedly, he's an "adherent of the 'straight edge' lifestyle that rejects substance use" and everyone knows he doesn't get high:
More than 70 friends went to bat for the ex-cop, saying they had never seen him take even a sip of coffee and that he abstained at bars while others drank booze.
I don't know these people, but I trust them more than I trust the drug test itself, because drug tests are bullshit. They're just not accurate. If a bunch of people come forward complaining that someone got railroaded by a drug test, I'm going to assume that's exactly what happened. It's happened before.
Notwithstanding the absurdity of the officer's crazy oral sex explanation, I wouldnât be at all surprised if he's the innocent victim of a false positive drug test result. If officer Goldin is telling the truth, then it's worth taking a moment to contemplate the irony that a cop who lives by a vehement anti-drug philosophy ended up getting screwed over by one of the numerous fraudulent technologies designed to ruin the lives of drug users.
I wonder what he thinks of the drug war now, after finding himself on the receiving end of its virtually infinite incompetence.