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ABF | Random Drug Tests

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ragpicker

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FMCSA announced effective Jan 1 2020 the test rate will go from 25% to 50% of all employees to be subject to random drug testing costing the trucking industry 50-70 million dollars next year
 
ragpicker said:
FMCSA announced effective Jan 1 2020 the test rate will go from 25% to 50% of all employees to be subject to random drug testing costing the trucking industry 50-70 million dollars next year
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Yikes! Pretty soon, we’ll have to go to a lab each time we have to go pee.
 
ragpicker said:
FMCSA announced effective Jan 1 2020 the test rate will go from 25% to 50% of all employees to be subject to random drug testing costing the trucking industry 50-70 million dollars next year
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It used to be a higher percentage, I believe 50% spread over a 2 year period. So few people were being caught that they lowered the percentage to 25%. Maybe the positive hits are up since so many states are legalizing marijuana use and they raised it.
 
cindig said:
It used to be a higher percentage, I believe 50% spread over a 2 year period. So few people were being caught that they lowered the percentage to 25%. Maybe the positive hits are up since so many states are legalizing marijuana use and they raised it.
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That's exactly why they lowered the threshold for how many tests must be administered. The baseline was 10% of the entire population presumed to be doing drugs.........Doctors, truck drivers , policemen, steel workers, nurses, politicians, sanitation workers, judges,..........10% of each demographic was supposed to be using drugs.

The.....problem became evident when the truck driver demographic produced less than 1% of positive drug tests. Apparently,.....Drug Addicts don't apply at jobs where the average work week is 60-70 hours,...and you're expected to be "on-call", do physical labor, and work outside in the weather.........

The ATA pushed Congress to establish "rolling urinalysis collection points"............here in Penna. , they have Winnebagos,....doing random drug tests at roadside inspections. This took most of the cost of random drug tests away from the companies,...onto the Taxpayers,.....and alleviated the liability and burden for the trucking companies.......

The State Police.....hated....becoming "urinalysis collectors".........and balked at doing this function as..."demeaning" to a State Trooper.....No mention about how......"demeaning"....it was to the truck drivers......

The Entry-Level drug test to get hired in trucking pretty much screened out the very few "brain-damaged" drug users stupid enough to apply at a trucking company for work. Random tests by both State Police and Employers were producing less than 1% of positive tests.........It was a billion dollar boondoggle,....as far as the companies were concerned......Cut into profits needlessly...

Then comes the Great Driver Shortage of the past 5 years.........and companies lower their standards in an attempt to entice.....anybody, brain-damaged or otherwise,.....into driving a truck...
And,....Presto!......the positive drug tests started inching up closer to the 10% baseline....

I'm sure you're right that legalized Marijuana,...and opioid pain medication has something to do with the increase in required tests.....
 
The tests are supposedly random. Almost every time I returned from vacation I would be sent for a test in the first hour back on the job.
 
DCM_Doc said:
The tests are supposedly random. Almost every time I returned from vacation I would be sent for a test in the first hour back on the job.
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One time a coworker went to Amsterdam on vacation. When he got back my wonderful TM sent him for a drug test. When he questioned the TM about the timing, he said he "forgot" to send him before he left.
 
FWIW: Marijuana is a schedule 1 drug, no different than cocaine or heroin, under the federal Controlled Substances Act. The federal swamp critters, who exempt themselves from these random drug tests, are "thinking" about removing it from the list, but until then, it is a federal felony to either recreationally or medically use marijuana, EVEN in states where it is now legal to do so. If you already own a firearm, or fill out an ATF form 4473 to buy a gun and state on that form ( question 11a) you do not use a schedule 1 drug and in fact do, you are defacto guilty of a federal felony under the 1968 Gun Control Act (10yrs and $10,000 fine). Federal law supercedes state law on this. Would they put you in prison? Probably not, but they would LOVE to fine you and take away your voting rights, as well as confiscating your guns. There is NO minimum quantity or medical Rx exemption on this as well. You might want to factor this into your decisions regarding this, and warn your friends as well. I am CERTAIN I am correct about this. I have warned my friends in Oregon to be careful while out hunting and thinking they can now sit around the campfire in the evening passing a joint around and celebrating their new freedom given them by their liberal swamp critters in the state legislature in Salem. It just may be a clever trap....
 
hangbelly said:
FWIW: Marijuana is a schedule 1 drug, no different than cocaine or heroin, under the federal Controlled Substances Act. The federal swamp critters, who exempt themselves from these random drug tests, are "thinking" about removing it from the list, but until then, it is a federal felony to either recreationally or medically use marijuana, EVEN in states where it is now legal to do so. If you already own a firearm, or fill out an ATF form 4473 to buy a gun and state on that form ( question 11a) you do not use a schedule 1 drug and in fact do, you are defacto guilty of a federal felony under the 1968 Gun Control Act (10yrs and $10,000 fine). Federal law supercedes state law on this. Would they put you in prison? Probably not, but they would LOVE to fine you and take away your voting rights, as well as confiscating your guns. There is NO minimum quantity or medical Rx exemption on this as well. You might want to factor this into your decisions regarding this, and warn your friends as well. I am CERTAIN I am correct about this. I have warned my friends in Oregon to be careful while out hunting and thinking they can now sit around the campfire in the evening passing a joint around and celebrating their new freedom given them by their liberal swamp critters in the state legislature in Salem. It just may be a clever trap....
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In Illinois when a purchase is made at the dispensary the drivers licence/ID is scanned , to many scans will compromise Foid card and by the way republicans use narcotics also
 
ED FORCE ONE said:
In Illinois when a purchase is made at the dispensary the drivers licence/ID is scanned , to many scans will compromise Foid card and by the way republicans use narcotics also
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They absolutely do. Both parties are equally despicable to me. That's why I did not differentiate between the Grand Old Alligator Party or the Anaconda Party when I referred to "swamp critters" And looking at the smoldering wreckage of our once-great Republic, I just don't have the motivation to argue politics any longer. Sorry.
 
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hangbelly said:
They absolutely do. Both parties are equally despicable to me. That's why I did not differentiate between the Grand Old Alligator Party or the Anaconda Party when I referred to "swamp critters" And looking at the smoldering wreckage of our once-great Republic, I just don't have the motivation to argue politics any longer. Sorry.
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Agree , a non stop talk fest
 
The reason I mentioned this is after reading what happened in Hawaii this past year. They passed a medical marijuana law in Hawaii. They already had a state law requiring registration of guns in the state. Some enterprising bureaucrat in state gov't got the brilliant idea to cross-check the medical marijuana database with the gun registry database, and then sent everyone who turned up on both databases a letter telling them they had 30 days to get rid of their guns or they would be turned over to the feds. It shocked me, so I did the research.
 
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