Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Targeting Poor and Unemployed for Drug Problem distracts from growing Employee Drug use Problem.

Here's something I'm still wrestling with. The unemployed and underemployed must now be tested, treated and drug-free, to receive food stamps (eventually BadgerCare). The excuse? Employers are unhappy with unreliable drugged out applicants. So businesses talked their compliant Republicans political servants into making taxpayers pay for drug testing, so they don't have to; WPR:
With low unemployment, some companies are finding it difficult to find suitable workers. And finding ones who are drug-free can add an extra challenge ... some companies have half their new hires fail a drug test and some companies are considering whether to continue screening.
So one group must be utterly clean, while the other group is becoming more addicted and costing businesses too much to continue drug testing? The poor are being stigmatized while drug-using employees are becoming a bigger and bigger problem?
New data analyzing employee drug test results have been released ... Data shows that between 2016 and 2017 the nation has seen major increases in positive test results for cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana ... positive test results for meth went up 167 percent in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio ... 4.2 percent of workers tested were drug positive in 2017. In Wisconsin it was 4.8 percent.
Employers are actually afraid to drug test their employees because replacing them would be difficult:
"Every client meeting we go to we have companies that aren’t CDL (commercial drivers license) so they aren’t technically required to test, questioning if they should because they can’t get good (job candidates) to pass the drug screen."
Legalized Marijuana a big drug testing problem companies are suddenly confronting:
Samantha Devore, who oversees drug testing at Bellin Health for trucking firms, said, "We have companies ask us flat out 'Is there a test that doesn’t include marijuana?' The U.S. DOT will never allow illegal substances to be accepted in their drug panel and in most states it is still an illegal drug."
No surprise, Democrats are also on top of this problem:
Recently a bill was introduced by Rep. David Bowen, D-Milwaukee, that would ban marijuana testing for most jobs.

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