okay
lead on
um drug testing doesn't bother me
doesn't bother you
no uh i've been drug tested twice at TI and it doesn't bother me
uh
well we differ there
it bothers me
why why does it bother you
i just feel like it's an invasion invasion of my privacy
you know i you know there's a lot alcohol for example
i can go out and drink on the weekends and come in hung over and do a lot worse job
than if i go out on Friday and
i don't know say take take a hit of Ecstasy and dance all night
not saying that i do but i'm just
i know i understand uh
i think alcohol's a a whole lot worse drug and it's more widely accepted
well that's true i i agree that there should be something done about people that drink alcohol because i'm sure that there's people that drink and come to work especially on a second shift or third shift
so uh i agree with you there but it just uh and it and it probably is an invasion of privacy
i i feel like it's okay if there's if there's cause somebody's performance is you know indicates indicates that they're
they're obviously not all there they're
do yeah okay
you know you got reason to suspect they may be doing drugs and he says sure you know take them down there and test them but
i think a lot of people are going to go out and
you know substitute something else for maybe what they would have done a lot of people i don't i personally don't smoke pot but a lot of people do and they do it in their own time at their at their at their own place
and they're going to find they're going to go out and drink instead because they know that it's their job on the line
that's true
and uh
you know i've been i've come to work hung in the morning and i know i'm worthless
feel bad yeah i don't drink anymore but i can remember
but
i can remember the you know there's nothing worse than a hangover i have to agree there nothing worse
than a i can remember staying in bed a whole day from a hangover and not going to work but i that was years ago and i didn't work for TI so but you you know really and truly there's
there's nothing worse than a hangover and you're right and you cannot perform well
and the same is true of the drug hangover you know if you
that's true
but there's i think there's a there's a big difference between use and abuse and i do do agree that drug abuse should be punished
but if somebody's going to in their own home on their own time
in such a way that doesn't interfere interfere with their responsibilities
you know do it do some drugs then that should be their business
course through this i think that they've helped a lot of people also uh
a lot of people have ended up going uh to treatment you know which is offered i think at most government places i know it is at TI do you work for TI
yeah yeah i do
okay well you know a lot of people have used that treatment and i center and that's probably been a good thing especially for cocaine abusers and stuff
i think i think that's true and i think that the key thing is the difference between use and abuse and a lot of people don't
they they don't know how to
use drugs for recreational purposes without
it becoming you know a dominant force in their life
the drug can use you
i mean yeah it's it's you know it's easy for me to say i'm going to go out on Friday night and maybe
you know i don't have to work till Monday and if i want to go out and and drink a little beer or do something and just dance a lot or whatever
that's fine as long as i realize Saturday that in order to you know i'm going to feel like crap that's just the way it is same thing if you drink but the thing is you don't get up and drink another beer to get over it
yeah
and and unfortunately and i think cocaine's a a good example it's it's just so much easier to just do some more do some more and then before you know it
you know you're you're always doing it
yeah
i don't know
that's true
that's true
yep
well
i mean i i work for TI so i don't do drugs you know
you can't i mean it and you just run the risk of
right
it's too big a risk yeah
of of
getting caught and of course the first time you get caught it's not that big a deal you have to go to treatment and that
but you're without a paycheck during that time
and i don't at least that's my understanding is even
you know the first time you go for counseling and it's six weeks before you're back to work
oh i didn't know they took you off the job
i was that i was told that uh
somebody had uh some woman had
had a cold or something and had some cough medicine prescribed and her husband or maybe the other way around one of them anyway had uh
come down with the same thing and used some of the medicine and was tested the next day and failed and was out of a job until he went through counseling
and it's like you know i can't afford that kind of loss of income you know
wow
who can afford that my God i can't afford to miss a day let alone six
i mean i've always been yeah the first time so what i'll go explain myself and and
now i would have thought if he'd have brought in the prescription wife prescription and explained the situation that they might have let him off of that
that's what you would think but i kind of i that's i you know i heard it through the grapevine so i don't i don't know firsthand but that's what i heard was that it was just
they didn't
okay
yeah
you know there there were no
now see that i wouldn't agree with see see i think you got to be able to bend the rules a little bit
here and there too without you know if if it's a case like that because look how many people take their husband's or their wife's
medication you know but that's a really good example
oh yeah you know you've got the same exact thing yeah
yeah yeah and so i would think that either the doctor could get him off with that or or that they should listen
i mean because i i just can't see that they would do some make somebody go to a rehab or whatever they go through because he took his wife's medicine that just doesn't sound right does it
so it seems like they should be able to bend the rules oops excuse me a little bit
on that but you but i don't know because i don't know anybody that's had to go through treatment or anything so i really don't know
well i think
i don't know anybody personally either
you know
i do know a lot of people that you know do use drugs recrela recreationally and there's such a big difference
yeah i i don't know
it's it's kind of i've also been
you know known managers at TI i know one i guess i shouldn't make that a plural but uh
who drank on the job had whiskey in his desk drawer and you tell me what's worse
ooh
you know
oh that could have been his whole career down the tubes
yeah but
everybody covers up you know it's the good old boy thing
i don't know
so does alcohol show up in these tests
i don't think so they don't test for it i mean
so so it wouldn't show up yeah well it's not that's true see there's the there it is right there it's not illegal
it's not illegal
and drugs are illegal so i guess if they made drugs legal or marijuana legal then we the we wouldn't be going through this
you know they wouldn't be testing
which doesn't make any sense either because they say you know it has no place on the job and you can't work safely under the influence of drugs and stuff like that
well that's true
and so if it was made legal
that doesn't make it any safer on the job
no no i agree i think i believe in test for cause if if somebody's performance
and i guess that there's the other argument is that well do you wait until they screw up you know and someone gets hurt
get hurt yeah
yeah but at the same time you know you're telling me that on some given day i'm going to walk in they're going to tell me go down and you know and go down to the health center and
you know pee in a jar or whatever it is no i haven't and so
have you had to do it yet
oh gosh i was one of the first ones to go i think
the with the January that they started it up i got called
so i was one of the first ones but but you did you get tested when you got hired
no see i was i've been working for TI for almost eight years
okay so you were well i i got tested before i got hired too so
but
hum
i have to i have to honestly say that i drink more now than i did
because you know it's what i can get away with and if i'm going to go on the weekends
spend my money and you know i
if you don't drink you know you used to drink okay you go out and you want to party and that's
that's something you do when you're young and dumb i guess
you know
i'm not young anymore
i'm not as young as i used to be but i'm still
i quit
i quit drinking at oh a long time ago quit drinking i didn't smoke i don't smoke i gave everything up
so i guess i don't know what just old age i guess is why i
no i don't smoke i quit doing that and i've tried to quit drinking but it's
the only thing left you know i quit doing drugs when TI said quit and it was no big deal you know it's like i wasn't
a regular drug user
but uh
oh i have a lot of friends that just are uh smoke just you know occasional joint at a party or something
you know and and i'm even afraid to be around it
i i understand
because i'm afraid what if it gets you know because you can inhale it if if you're if a room full of it
i understand
i was around somebody today outdoors and they're smoking and it's like you know i smell it and i'm like well is this going into my bloodstream you know is this is there going to be enough there to get me
into my bloodstream
yeah and with my luck there'd be the notice Monday you know go take your test and that would scare me
get me in trouble
so see it didn't use to bother me when i thought that you know if i come in there and they say
okay you tested positive now explain yourself and i could say yeah well i was around some people that were smoking pot but i wasn't but you know it's the idea that
how can you prove it
you can't but at least you've got a chance whereas if they say for six weeks you don't have a job because you tested positive
that you know that's that's devastating how you know i can't live without my income for six weeks there's no way
no not many people could i go paycheck to paycheck barely
exactly
so
so i don't know
well this has been interesting
yeah opposing viewpoints there
but
huh
i said opposing viewpoints
sort well sort of i mean i i agree with a lot of what you said
for the most part
