More employers dropping marijuana from drug tests

CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, Associated Press May 2, 2018

WASHINGTON (AP) – FPI Management, a property company in California, wants to hire dozens of people. Factories from New Hampshire to Michigan need workers. Hotels in Las Vegas are desperate to fill jobs.

Those employers and many others are quietly taking what once would have been a radical step: They\’re dropping marijuana from the drug tests they require of prospective employees. Marijuana testing – a fixture at large American employers for at least 30 years – excludes too many potential workers, experts say, at a time when filling jobs is more challenging than it\’s been in nearly two decades.

\”It has come out of nowhere,\” said Michael Clarkson, head of the drug testing practice at Ogletree Deakins, a law firm. \”I have heard from lots of clients things like, \’I can\’t staff the third shift and test for marijuana.\’\”

Though still in its early stages, the shift away from marijuana testing appears likely to accelerate. More states are legalizing cannabis for recreational use; Michigan could become the 10th state to do so in November. Missouri appears on track to become the 30th state to allow medical pot use.

And medical marijuana users in Massachusetts , Connecticut and Rhode Island have won lawsuits in the past year against companies that rescinded job offers or fired workers because of positive tests for cannabis. Before last year, courts had always ruled in favor of employers.

The Trump administration also may be softening its resistance to legal marijuana. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta suggested at a congressional hearing last month that employers should take a \”step back\” on drug testing.

\”We have all these Americans that are looking to work,\” Acosta said. \”Are we aligning our … drug testing policies with what\’s right for the workforce?\”

There is no definitive data on how many companies conduct drug tests, though the Society for Human Resource Management found in a survey that 57 percent do so. Nor is there any recent data on how many have dropped marijuana from mandatory drug testing.

But interviews with hiring executives, employment lawyers and agencies that help employers fill jobs indicate that dropping marijuana testing is among the steps more companies are taking to expand their pool of applicants to fill a near-record level of openings.

Businesses are hiring more people without high school diplomas, for example, to the point where the unemployment rate for non-high school graduates has sunk more than a full percentage point in the past year to 5.5 percent. That\’s the steepest such drop for any educational group over that time. On Friday, the government is expected to report another robust jobs report for April.

Excluding marijuana from testing marks the first major shift in workplace drug policies since employers began regularly screening applicants in the late 1980s. They did so after a federal law required that government contractors maintain drug-free workplaces. Many private businesses adopted their own mandatory drug testing of applicants.

For complete article https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/money/business/2018/05/02/more-employers-dropping-marijuana-pot-drug-tests/573907002/

Anthony Bourdain. Kate Spade. You know their names and you know the unfortunate circumstances surrounding their untimely passing. Bourdain, 61, and Spade, 55, took their lives in suicides by hanging. Their deaths marked an immediate response from mental health advocates while pushing mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety to the forefront of the news cycle.

Prior to their deaths the CDC’s (Center for Disease Control), Vital Signs report found that suicide rates have been rising in nearly every state. In 2016, nearly 45,000 Americans age ten or older died by suicide. Even more alarming, suicide is now the 10th leading cause of death and is one of three leading causes that are on the rise. But what does this mean for states where drug use runs rampant? Colorado saw a 34.1 percent increase in suicides while Washington and Oregon saw increases by 18.8 percent and 28.2 percent. Take into consideration that these states have legalized marijuana for recreational and/or medicinal use and it’s clear that mind-altering drugs can aggravate those with and without mental health conditions.

Bourdain was a long-time pot smoker and made countless marijuana jokes, often alluding to smoking weed in the restaurants he visited. The “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” Twitter account once tweeted an elaborate illustration detailing “how to roll a joint.”

Did copious amounts of THC play a part in Bourdain’s death? At this point we don’t know for sure, but we do know that his weed addiction began in his younger years right before the publication of his best-selling book, “Kitchen Confidential,” in 2000. “Weed was a major expense. Before I reached the point where weed made me paranoid and agoraphobic, it was costing me a few hundred dollars a week,” the chef recalled. Fast forward to becoming a successful star, and Bourdain was using cocaine to offset the effects of weed. It’s important to note that cannabis is playing a role in many suicides by causing mental health disorders, including depression and psychosis. One has to wonder if a cocktail of drugs played a part in his untimely death.

For complete article http://www.poppot.org/2018/06/25/bourdain-spade-suicide/

Canada Great speech by Senator Anne Cools – Canadian Senate June 4 2018

Hon. Anne C. Cools: Honourable senators, I rise to speak to third reading of Bill C-45, An Act respecting cannabis and to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the Criminal Code and other Acts.

I must inform you that I have absolutely no will to vote in favour of this bill, and I have not been prompted by any good reason as to why I should. In my view, this bill is unconscionable and morally objectionable. I have had great difficulty accepting the fact that Canada’s national government is leading on the legitimation of the frequent and recreational consumption of cannabis, known as marijuana, and does so despite the abundant and copious evidence in its possession that cannabis is a dangerous psychoactive narcotic.

The Government of Canada is well informed and fully aware that cannabis legalization is not solely a matter of the government’s presenting and providing cannabis as a harmless and healthy form of recreation and entertainment. The real issue here is that marijuana is, in fact, a mind-altering drug and is most harmful to the human mind, the brain, and the cognitive functions of its users, whether frequent or occasional, and most particularly to the minds of our youth.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines psychoactive as “affecting the mind or behavior.” In addition, The Oxford English Dictionary defines psychoactive as “Of a drug: that possesses the ability to affect the mind, emotions, or behaviour.”

Colleagues, I believe that the consequence of cannabis decriminalization and legalization is a much deeper issue than the properties of the drug itself. As Deputy Chair of our Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, I was struck and impressed by the quality and quantity of concerns raised by many witnesses regarding Canada’s obligations, conventions and international treaty agreements.

Mr. Bruno Gélinas-Faucher, a PhD candidate in International Law at Britain’s Cambridge University, testified before our Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, a committee which I must add is ably chaired by our honourable colleague, Senator Andreychuk, on March 29, 2018. He informed, as recorded in this committee’s report on Bill C-45, at page 11, that:

. . . this is not minor at all. Legalizing cannabis will lead to the violation of a fundamental principle that is at the very heart of the conventions.

Honourable senators, this witness, Mr. Gélinas-Faucher, cited documents from Global Affairs Canada, obtained through an access to information request. These documents recognized that the legalization of cannabis would have “a significant impact” on Canada’s obligations under the international drug control conventions.

Colleagues, I believe that this bill, which will make drastic and radical behavioural and social changes, has not been sufficiently and vigorously thought through, nor have our Canadian citizens and our international partners been sufficiently consulted.

Colleagues, testifying before the Standing Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, many witnesses raised the important question, being the extent of the impact of Canada’s legalization of cannabis on our population.

In a written brief to our Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, the quasi-judicial control body called the International Narcotics Control Board, which was established by the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, and which is also responsible for the implementation of the United Nations drug conventions, wrote that Bill C-45 is “incompatible with the treaty obligations to which Canada is bound.”

The International Narcotics Control Board further noted, and is recorded in our Foreign Affairs Committee’s Report at page 11, that:

. . . it “views any legislative measure aimed at legalizing and regulating the use of controlled substances for non-medical purposes as a fundamental breach of the international treaty provisions to which State parties to the international drug control conventions are held.”

Accordingly, the International Narcotic Control Board further noted that:

. . . the legalization and regulation of cannabis for non-medical purposes . . . as foreseen in Bill C-45, cannot be reconciled with Canada’s international obligations . . . .

Colleagues, section 91 of our Constitution Act, 1867, is headed “Powers of the Parliament,” and informs us that the fundamental purpose of government is:

91. It shall be lawful for the Queen, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate and the House of Commons, to make Laws for the Peace, Order, and good Government of Canada, in relation to all Matters not coming within the Classes of Subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces; . . .

Honourable senators, I do not believe that Bill C-45 can possibly be for the peace, order and good government of Canada. As a senator, I feel morally and politically bound to use my intellect at all times. For many reasons, I have simply not been persuaded that Bill C-45 is legally, morally and spiritually sound. I sincerely believe and I know that psychoactive drugs are a mighty foe to our society and to our young people. I believe that I have a duty to uphold those whom I do not know, and the many who have no voice, to speak on these issues.

Colleagues, a worrisome characteristic of cannabis that should preoccupy us is that whereas the human body can process and excrete alcohol quickly, the human body is slow to discharge marijuana, which can reside and remain in the body for up to four weeks.

Throughout this debate, I have rarely heard this health question raised. For myself, this health fact this is not one that I can ignore. The slow exit of cannabis from the human person should be a source of concern to all senators.

I maintain that cannabis is a very dangerous drug, which many have been persuaded to think is less dangerous and less harmful than cocaine and heroin.

Honourable senators, I shall close with Saint Thomas Aquinas. (1900)

He said:

Every judgement of conscience, be it right or wrong, be it about things evil in themselves or morally indifferent, is obligatory, in such wise that he who acts against his conscience always sins.

Honourable senators, from where I look out at life and at these issues which deeply affect our youth and young people, I am convinced that Bill C-45 cannot possibly be for the peace, order and good government of Canada. I shall vote with my conscience.

I thank honourable senators for their attention in this very important matter.

https://sencanada.ca/en/content/sen/chamber/421/debates/214db_2018-06-04-e#27

Middle-class drug-users are funding wave of violence

by Baroness Helen Newlove

Speech by the UK Victims’ Commissioner in the House of Lords during a debate on the UK Government’s Serious Violence Strategy, June 11, 2018.

However, no child is born with a knife or a gun in their hand. We must do something in the intervening years before those weapons become essential accessories attached to their hands. They have weapons already–hands and feet. Any strategy must start long before the children have been sucked into gangs and a hostile and violent culture.

If we are going to ask schools, youth services and local authorities to help spot and support these children, then the £40 million committed in the Government’s Serious Violence Strategy is to be welcomed, but I fear it will be a drop in the ocean given the scale of the problem we have to tackle.

The challenge to tackle this issue is obviously for government but it is also for perpetrators. However, let me be clear that when I say perpetrators I do not mean only the children armed with knives or the gang leaders causing terror in our cities but also the middle-class drug users who are funding this wave of violence.

City workers who drink their fairtrade coffee out of a reusable cup during the week think nothing of the supply chain of the stuff they snort up their noses at the weekend. In my view, they are as guilty as the moped riders.

We need to change social attitudes and to stem the increase of crack cocaine use.

A full transcript of the House of Lord’s debate on the British government’s Serious Violence Strategy can be found here in Hansard: House of Lords, Vol. 791, June 11, 2018, columns 1509—1547.

For complete article go to https://victimscommissioner.org.uk/vc-speech-house-of-lords-debate-on-the-governments-serious-violence-strategy/

People Are Pissed Off After South Australia Announced It Was Going To Ramp Up Its War On Drugs

South Australian attorney-general Vickie Chapman announced on Monday plans to quadruple fines for cannabis possession and introduce prison sentences.

Currently cannabis is decriminalised in South Australia — it became the first state to do so in 1987 — and most people caught with small amounts of the drug face a fine of $125 to $500.

But Chapman\’s new legislation could see that fine reach $2,000, as well as a prison sentence of up to two years.

\”It is a serious drug,\” she told ABC radio, saying the new penalties bring the state into line with the rest of the country. \”It needs to be dealt with as a controlled substance.\”

A coronial inquest into the 2012 shooting death of 18-year-old Lewis McPherson is being cited by Chapman as a major reason for the new policy, after deputy coroner Anthony Schapel recommended an increase in the penalty associated with cannabis.

McPherson\’s killer was found to be affected by alcohol, ecstasy and cannabis when he shot the teenager.

Chapman said there were \”a number of medical people\”, including the coroner, who backed up the need for harsher punishment. She did not specify on who these people were.

For more https://www.buzzfeed.com/bradesposito/south-australia-cannabis-drugs?utm_term=.ndz0Kreo5

Forget \’evil\’ dealers. It\’s time to target the REAL drug villains…

The real drivers of drug crime in this country are the smug and self-satisfied people who buy and use illegal drugs. Yet, somehow, they are the ones who get away with it, even though their actions are severe crimes — in theory.

This has long been my view, but I was moved and pleased to hear Baroness Newlove, cruelly robbed of her brave husband by the violent crime from which nobody is now safe, making this point in the House of Lords.

Alas, her powerful words received little attention. Could this be because parts of our media are corrupted by widespread drug abuse? I could not possibly say. She condemned \’the middle-class drug users who are funding this wave of violence. City workers who drink their Fairtrade coffee out of a reusable cup during the week think nothing of the supply chain of the stuff they snort up their noses at the weekend. In my view, they are as guilty as the moped riders\’.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-5852689/PETER-HITCHENS-Forget-evil-dealers-time-target-REAL-drug-villains.html (cited 19/8/18)

Subject: Idaho\’s Chronic State marijuana documentary is now available

Friends, the Idaho premiere of Chronic State was a great success. Held at the historic Egyptian theater in downtown Boise, audience members were introduced to Idaho\’s new marijuana education campaign \”KeepIdaho\” (KeepIdaho.org) before watching a powerful one-hour documentary that reveals the true consequences of legalization. This was followed by a panel discussion that included some of the amazing experts who appear in the film: Jo McQuire, Dr. Libby Stuyt, Dr. Brad Roberts, Aubree Adams, and Lynn Riemer.

The event concluded with a standing ovation from most members of the audience.

Chronic State was produced by DrugFree Idaho in partnership with the fantastic documentary film team of Ronn Seidenglanz and Tanya Pavlis (Sidewayz.com). Sidewayz previously produced our amazing youth video called Natural High. https://vimeo.com/181200245.

Although Chronic State was produced in Idaho as part of our statewide marijuana education efforts, it is being made available to everyone. After watching it, I am confident that each of you will find ways that it can benefit your state.

Chronic State can be accessed through the DrugFree Idaho website (www.drugfreeidaho.org).

Idaho\’s new media campaign can be seen here: http://keepidaho.org.

Please forward these resources to everyone you know. If this information is widely shared with legislators, other public officials, community stakeholders, youth, and the general public, it will greatly assist you in your efforts to expose the real consequences of legalization.

To help us evaluate the impact of the film, we would greatly appreciate hearing from you regarding public showings and the number of audience members.

Best wishes to you all. Monte

www.drugwatch.org
[email protected]

Outcry over drug abuse after photo shows \’spice zombies\’ slumped on bench in town centre

Police say fighting substance use is a \’priority\’ amid fears of endemic sweeping Britain

A widely-shared photo showing three men slumped in a zombie-like trance in a Welsh town centre has prompted fears that use of the drug spice is getting out of control in parts of Britain.

The image — taken in Bridgend — shows the trio sprawled on and around a bench. One is semi-naked.

All three appear to have taken the psychoactive substance, which can leave users in a catatonic state for hours at a time.

The picture — taken on Tuesday afternoon — has been shared almost 2,000 times on social media. A second later emerged showing a fourth man unconscious on another town bench.

The person who took it but asked not to be named told walesonline.co.uk: “It\’s terrible…There was kids in the background and walking past.\”

It appears to add to growing concerns that use of spice in Britain is turning into an epidemic. Similar photos from Manchester, Liverpool, Blackpool, Wolverhampton, London and Cambridge have all been shared in the past. In March, a 14-year-old died in Stockport after taking the drug. Just last month, health officials warned that abuse of the drug in prisons was creating a health crisis.

As the latest picture was eliciting horrified reactions online, South Wales Police moved to reassure residents that fighting the drug was a priority.

“Tackling the illegal drug supply on our streets is a priority for us as this kind of criminal activity has a hugely detrimental impact on our communities,” he said.

He added: ““We recently held Operation Pacific in the town centre which targeted county lines and the supply of drugs. This led to a number of arrests.

For complete article Is this the best our new amoral ‘freedom’ can produce?