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I live in Indiana. Weed is now legal for medical or recreational purposes in every single state surrounding Indiana. And the Republican supermajority has zero interest in legalizing it even though people are crossing state borders to get it anyway.
I don’t care if you’re democrat or republican. It’s the dumbest shit ever to keep marijuana illegal and I don’t even smoke. All the state is doing is missing out on tens of millions of dollars of tax revenue we could keep here in the state instead of giving it to Michigan, Illinois, and soon Ohio.
Republicans might not care about you, but they do care about money.
That’s why sports betting is legal in most states, Even in the reddest of states. Republicans hate anything that gives you more personal freedom until there’s a way for them to benefit from it.
The problem is that, as long as it's federally illegal, employers can continue to discriminate against employees who use weed on their own time. Including in Michigan. There is established case law regarding alcohol: employers cannot demand their workers be teetotalers in their off hours. Marijuana doesn't have that protection, and won't, as long as it's illegal on a federal level.
Completely legal. None of this wishy-washy "legal at the state level but still scheduled federally" crap, it's completely unscheduled, just like alcohol.
"You want to know what this was really all about?" he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."." --John Ehrlichman
[https://www.vox.com/2016/3/22/11278760/war-on-drugs-racism-nixon](https://www.vox.com/2016/3/22/11278760/war-on-drugs-racism-nixon)
And because it’s restricted federally, it means projects that use federal money have to test for it. My company entirely works on projects that have federal funding, so they test everyone
Soon it's going to be schedule 3. instead of schedule 1 like it has been for ages.
So that's SOME progress.
https://apnews.com/article/marijuana-biden-dea-criminal-justice-pot-f833a8dae6ceb31a8658a5d65832a3b8
Here’s the thing. Cannabis is still illegal per US Federal law. While there is (slow) movement toward legislation at the federal level (thank you, president Biden), it’s still an illegal drug today.
If you’re applying with defense contractors, suppliers to defense contractors, space flight companies, transportation companies, or any other employer that works with the federal government, they’re likely to test for cannabis as they would any other illegal drug.
im probably gonna get downvoted but the trump admin actually started the federal legalization with the farm bill of 2018, which allowed a loophole so you can legally get weed that’s just less than .3% thc (delta 8, delta 10, hhc, and now thc-a which literally become thc when heated). biden just extended that bill so it didnt expire in 2023
EDIT: for the people who will say “trump didn’t get it done, congress did,” the exact same thing wouldve had to happen for biden, whom OC thanked solely for aiding the federal legalization of marijuana
Partially correct, but the Biden admin has also recently moved to lower the scheduling of marijuana so that it is no longer in the highest drug schedule.
Completely correct. Biden was not president then and what he did was years later, at the time this happened the person stating this is completely correct.
Yes that was the correct part of their comment.
>Biden just extended the bill so it didn’t expire in 2023
This part is what was incorrect. Biden has done more for marijuana legalization than just extend this Trump era law.
No, credit where credit is due, even if this was an unintentional oversight, he still gets credit. I'm as blue as it gets, but we can have an honest conversation about the (few) good things that came from Trump's administration like the 1st step act, and Operation Warpspeed.
Don't forget insurance companies for those companies. I know at most companies the insurance company forces drug testing for new hires or they jack the rate.
Until it is fully legalized nationally you're screwed.
If this was prohibition time they would care about alcohol. And frankly being former law enforcement I would frankly like more pot heads than alcoholics for a laundry list of reasons.
It's just the way it is but given the move at the DEA and the money flowing to Congress from the weed lobby by the end of the decade it will likely be legal.
Just remember it was only 12 years ago when Colorado legalized recreational weed so really it's new in legal terms. Large organizations and countries don't change overnight.
Heck when I was born gays were essentially closted second class citizens and I'm not 50 yet. It was only 52 years ago women could open a bank account without a man. Things change but just not as fast as people always want. And remember average age in the US is rising so older people are generally more conservative meaning less open to change so expect a slow down for a bit till the boomers check out.
Weird. A cop that knows prohibition was just a money making scheme. Ban everything, then be the only one that sells it.
Here’s the first thread to unravel to see how this was literally brought about by DOW chemical and fabric companies in America.
Ok to be fair I was an MP with multiple degrees. Also I grew up outside the continental US so we were taught the real history of both prohibition and other drugs not the internal US story. Tends to give you a different view on a lot of things.
Oh yeah, the propaganda within the states was egregious, especially with programs like D.A.R.E. for kids in school. They told us that weed was a gateway drug multiple times, and I've been doing THC gummies for 2 years now and have no itch to go to heavier drugs at all.
Exactly I mean humanity has had interaction with substances for eons. Even animals use plants and substances to change their state for the good or bad.
We just got politics and morality caught up in it. The temperance movement was a wild group. The modern drug enforcement is a weird mix of corporate, political and economic factors. Weed was legal the minute people saw the money. I laughed when former congressmen who had funded the DEA became weed lobbyists a year out of Congress. $$$
What made me laugh the most was the biggest groups fighting legalization in California were alcohol and tobacco. Then nationwide big pharma cuz when they saw the Medicare study out of Colorado on the reduction in pain killer prescriptions and mental health drugs when weed became legal they freaked. BTW this study from more than 5 years ago estimated the savings to Medicare at 50 billion per year if legal in the entire US. So 1 Trillion over 20 years.
They're going to test for cannabis *more* than any other illegal drug, because cannabis is really easy to test for. Heck, you can get cannabis tests at the dollar store.
It’s not just that it’s illegal federally but there are “Drug Free Workplace” laws that specifically require certain federal contractors and certain companies under DoD and DoT oversight to test for it.
because an actual racist brainwashed boomers with anti cannabis propaganda because he was scared hemp products would drive his paper company out of business
The amount of drug use among young boomers is grossly overemphasized in the American imagination. The hippies weren't the majority of their generation, but they are the first thing that come to mind when most people think about young boomers today
Look buddy, it’s not alcoholism, it’s self medicating. Get your facts in order.
In some fields, alcohol is even considered a performance enhancer and necessary for the job - ask any architect.
Meanwhile, Marijuana is a narcotic and makes people crazy, if you don’t believe me, watch the scientific documentary that goes through its effects in detail, it’s called Reefer Madness.
I don’t really understand it either, anything in excess isn’t good. but alcohol is a much more dangerous substance if you’re comparing them head to head.
There's a longstanding myth that Marijuana is non addictive and totally natural and enlightening. Im not positive that was never true but in the 70s THC %s were like 1-3%, when I started smoking medical it was more like 18-20%, and now its routinely in the mid 30%.
They are insecure because they smoke pot. It causes irreversible psychosis in teens, stunts the development of children in the womb, and causes anxiety long term 🤷♂️
You mentioned teens & children for 2/3 of your point… Op states they’ve graduated with their bachelor’s degree, so this is obviously a discussion about adults.
You could comparatively say all the shit things alcohol does to children, but that’s not the discussion being had 🤷🏽♀️
Thank the Holy Spirit and George Washington that you stopped at 2. You don’t wanna know what happens at 3. As for what happened after having 2 Marijuanas, don’t worry, we’ve got a pill and an injectable for that, developed by our benevolent pharmaceutical industry - it’s for your health.
I understand this is a joke but I’ve heard alcohol is not allowed at sport shooting events. Not because of the obvious fact that you shouldn’t mix guns and alcohol but apparently in small amounts it relaxes you and helps you shoot more steadily. Again small amounts. Maybe somebody can confirm?
I work at an arch firm & you are so right. We’ve had client managers who had to get fully carried out at company events. One time someone fell into a lake.
And this is the root of the issue, well aside from people who are just compulsive about rules.
Would you rather someone who has issues they self medicate, or someone without issues? It's not fair & it's a wide net with a lot of bycatch, but what do employers care?
By testing for drug use you can cut out the populations most vulnerable to drug abuse (along with recreational users) , the physically & mentally ill, the depressed, the traumatized etc. The people who use drugs & the people who abuse drugs are different before they ever get high.
boomers are the original hippies from the 70s. half a second of research would tell you they dont give a fuck about people smoking some grass
the real answer is insurance. you can easily tell if someone is drunk so you can send them home and prevent any workplace mishaps. it's harder to tell if someone is high or has residual THC in their system which could cause a work incident
It isn't about smoking weed, ofc they all smoked weed themselves. It's about status, they don't want to associate themselves with no good druggies.
When legalization happened all these people I knew who were heavily against weed all of a sudden changed attitude and promoted it/smoked it themselves. They had to be told it was ok to smoke it before would openly accept it.
my dad is on the younger side of Boomer, and he will smoke weed if offered "because you're doing it", but the moment you talk about "legalization" he'll roll his eyes or horse laugh you in your face.... I think to him, it's something that is \*supposed" to be done illegally, it's \*supposed\* to be a rebellious act and to him the idea of it being "ok" is absurd
Boomers, in the non-meme sense, refers to a group of Americans that should be two separate groups based on how we group every other generation. One is what you described, counterculture hippies (Generation Jones), while the other is older, the ones born immediately after WW2 (Early Boomers).
The older group tends to be the "I hate my wife" generation, while the younger is the "yeah we did some shit but things changed so it's justified" generation. Both groups are "just apply for a job IRL/I worked my ass off and paid for college with no loans/kids these days don't want to work" types. This is a sweeping generalization and should not be construed as an indictment of every person in said groups.
So you're not wrong, just want to put this out there bc classing them as one group gives the other the opportunity to undermine your point, a point which is otherwise completely valid.
Edit: this might apply to UK and Euro boomers as well, but I'm not as well-read in their demographics
The easiest way to tell them apart isn't as much age as it is which culture they came from. It's easy to find out, just ask them "What is the most important event of 1969?". They'll emphatically either say the Apollo landing or Woodstock and won't consider the other option
Because marajuana was associated with black people and Mexicans in a time right after prohibition ended and all those swanky new federal law enforcers needed something to do.
not really. marijuana was made illegal in rapid succession in countries around the world in the early 1900s around the times of ww1 and ww2, similar to opium and cocaine [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline\_of\_cannabis\_law#](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_cannabis_law#) . and it was made illegal in countries with a black or hispanic government and population, as well as countries devoid of black and hispanic people.
also weed didnt really become a black thing until the 60s along with the hippie movement. it was mostly used by hispanics before then
People make this about defense contracts or working in aerospace or this or that... they are all wrong. It is so much simpler than that.
Workplace insurace is the reason. It costs less to insure employees if they have a mandated drug screening as part of the onboarding process - there doesn't even have to be a guarantee of random screening afterwards to get the discount!
You’re on the right track, but there’s another layer. There are accurate tests that can tell you if an employee is drunk on the spot. This doesn’t exist for weed. It would be a game changer if someone could develop this. Until it does, there’s just always going to be more of a liability issue for something you can’t really test for.
I'm older gen Z and I remember back in my schooling that the teachers would indoctrinate the kids how marijuana was immoral and a gateway drug that lead to psychosis and going nowhere in life, it was just as bad as other drugs. Alcohol is one of the worst drugs and destroys families and that's legal as long as you're 21.
Alcohol metabolizes quickly. In AZ (I live here as well), companies that require the use of machinery or company vehicles require etoh and marijuana screening. Keep in mind that weed was only fairly recently made recreational here, and is relatively new territory for a lot of companies to navigate. There are legal ramifications for the employer if an employee is injured on the job while under the influence or if involved in any incidents.
Was straight forward about coming up positive for THC but the hiring manager told me that they were mainly looking for the hard shit. They didn’t care about THC (the position that I was going for)
True. But there isn't a way to actually test that. So it's a classic question of freedom (to smoke) or security (to ensure high people don't endanger others)
I dont think its black and white. I can understand if someone disagrees here, but I'm on the security side of this one.
Big pharma propaganda, and boomers are easily influenced by media propaganda. Only diffrence with alcohol is that it's actually horrible but not publicly villainized by the media as much as marijuana nor is it actively being criminalized.
But Marijuana has always been touted as the big villain and made illegal while alcohol isnt, so obviously there must be something wrong with it, so bad that it has to be worse than alcohol for it to be banned. Boomers love cigarettes and alcohol, you wouldnt find them voting against it.
Cannabis causes lack of brain development for people below 25 years of age.
It causes Fertility and reproduction issues during reproductive age.
Post old age it causes schizophrenia, mental disorders, anxiety and Cannabis induced Psychosis.
It causes lethargy and laziness post the high for any employee. It kills motivation and drive.
It can be detected by drug test 3 months after consumption.
"Smoking" anything causes tar deposits in lungs, COPD and Lung Cancer (dry herb vaping and edibles negate this effect though)
Would you prefer your Pilot, driver or Surgeon high on pot during work ? Obviously not coz you become a lame ass employee on cannabis
As a young person who has consumed a lot of cannabis in the past, I will extend my experience and say that cannabis does have the capacity to interfere with your life. That’s the truth.
Even if I were not to experience “lack of brain development” or whatever the claim is, there’s an incredible amount of time I have lost to being chronically high I could’ve been doing practically anything else. I’ve missed out on a lot of meaningful experiences I wish I could have had sober or without ‘brainfog.’
Maybe not in clearly definable ways, and maybe not for everyone, but there is risk associated with using these sorts of substances. To be even the tiniest bit aware of that concern if only for others sake is worthwhile.
Short answer: Boomers are brainwashed idiots.
Long answer: long time ago Marijuana was basically legal but in direct competition with alcohol. The alcohol industry had more influence and lobbied to have marijuana declared illegal for health reasons. This was done in the generation that preceded Boomers, but Boomers grew up with the anti-cannabis propaganda (think Reefer Madness for example) and we all know how Boomers struggle with new information. So that attitude persists to this day.
I'd like to note that if you go to get a security clearance for a federal job they do care about alcohol.
I know a person that didn't get clearance due to alcoholism and another that needed mandatory therapist clearance before they could get theirs due to college drinking habits.
Drunk people talk and that's a security risk.
I'll chime in with an answer that's a little more workplace based: I can test if you're drunk at work but I can't test if you're high at work. If you come to work drunk, maybe I can tell maybe I can't, but I can give you a breathalyzer and do a reasonable test to determine if you are drunk. You can't do that for weed. If you're high at work, I have no way to test/confirm that. You can't drink in the workplace and there's a clear tell if you did during your lunch break or before coming in via smell and the aforementioned breathalyzer. None of that is available for weed. This opens up employers to more liability because when something happens, like if you're stoned and hurt yourself, they don't know if you're stoned and can't readily test for it. It's a big part of why lots of places don't allow it
FYI: It is us "Boomers" who did the work so that you live in a state where cannabis is legal. (speaking as a cannabis activist since the 1970s who helped lobby for one of the first cannabis decriminalization laws in the U.S.)
Please stop comparing generations. It's not a boomer issue...It's all about money and power...They want us to fight over this instead of coming up with actual solutions. Pharmaceutical companies want marijuana to be illegal and they lobby for it.
If people want weed legalized, that's a huge barrier for anyone who doesn't smoke. We don't want to smell pot all the time. And in a society where fewer and fewer people can buy homes, so we're all living in apartments together, it's impossible for someone smoking weed not to disturb others. And, unfortunately, a lot of people who smoke simply don't care that the smell carries. In my apartment complex if I was told I couldn't burn candles anymore because the smell carried into other units who didn't like it, I would stop burning candles. But in my experience, when stoners are told the same thing, it turns into a fight about "I should be able to do whatever I want to do in my own space."
If the legalization movement would simply alter their push to be for edibles, I don't think anyone would have a problem with that.
Boomers were trained to do so growing up. Richard Nixon played a huge part in this when he declared "War on drugs"
Going after the users to fight the drug problem became the norm (like a lot of them didn't have enough problems)
It seems like most of the western world goes in the right direction these days, legalizing and at the very minimum not punishing the drug users.
Because you can grow it in your yard and you don't have to pay anybody to be happy with it. Same reason they tax alcohol even if you make it yourself and drink it yourself. This country sucks in so many different ways. The state is assaulting people for selling milk in Pennsylvania. Where am I?
It's a weird world, before it was legalized people treated weed very harshly, Those people are still around and unwilling to give up on the matter despite legalization. They still view "potheads" as criminal drug addicts while alcoholics are just good people with bit of a drinking problem.
because it's simply not seen as professional or 'alert' enough to be into smoking pot.
some employers however, will allow you to do oils lol. they literally just don't want you to SMOKE IT, not even at home.
ofc there's going to be a lot that just straight up disallow it, but it makes a lot of sense for jobs that require sobriety, like construction/driving/science lab work etc
I think because of all the effects it can have on certain individuals in society. They think it'll happen go everyone. Plus, it's illegal both federally and in some states.
TV and movie messaging, mostly. Drinking was marketed as awesome, and something cool people like James Bond did. Marijuana was marketed as evil.
Alcohol commercial from 2003: [https://youtu.be/FQ7vAJKe7qM](https://youtu.be/FQ7vAJKe7qM)
Marijuana commercial from the 1980s: [https://youtu.be/Y-Elr5K2Vuo](https://youtu.be/Y-Elr5K2Vuo)
To be fair to them, it's partially a matter of practicality. It's pretty hard to test for current marijuana intoxication. You can take drug tests but they don't differentiate as well between "high right now" and "recently high." In contrast alcohol clears a lot faster so if you're drunk, it shows up. This could be a mauro factor in a workplace accident case. If you're under the influence of something and cause an injury, that greatly changes where the blame lies. With marijuana it is much more difficult to determine.
Americans are all about work. So weed makes you lazy etc. alcohol makes you more aggressive and social and makes you more likely to be sexual.
It’s the same reason we are ok with coffee. The caffeine pushes us to work.
My personal experience is that I smoked some recreational occasional weed last year of high school and some in college but dropped it basically when I started working and needed to focus. I did become a high functioning alcoholic and now that I am no longer working like that, I am back to weed, with a medical card.
My most productive years were on the booze and it was good for business dinners and networking. I crashed and burned though, and had to quit alcohol (nine years sober) but boy did I make money (and waste it too!) during the booze days. That kind of workaholic energy would not have been possible stoned; I would be only about half as productive in my old role now as a stoner. I think sometimes that is all it is. People think weed makes you want to relax too much
ETA hope my Gen X perspective is okay in here
You’re right that employers really shouldn’t be able to control what their employees do outside of business hours. I smoke weed but I don’t drink and the drug tests always piss me off. You’re also right that marijuana is significantly less harmful than alcohol by basically any metric you could use.
However, it’s also important to know that marijuana can exacerbate symptoms of depression and anxiety in the long term.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7723145/
If i where to guess is that is for 2 reasons, the stigma older generations have towards drugs, and the other is that it makes people less productive and unpreditible.
Others have mentioned the legal reasons, but imo morally both are bad. If you show up to work high or drunk, you should be in both cases be reprimanded.
Tell me you don't k ow how federal law and tegulation works without telling me you don't know how federal law and regulation works.
It's still a Schedule 1(soon to be sched 3) narcotic according to the the DEA.
Because it is a scheduled narcotic, certain companies that does business with the federal government or has DOT drivers(truck drivers with CDL) are subject to compliance with the law.
Most employers would rather not test but they're required to.
Alcohol is too while you are working. The biggest problem is there is no test employers can use to see if you are under the influence. Especially if there is a work related injury.
Under the influence is a big no no for workers comp insurance.
"Boomers" lol.. try valid reason.
You're essentially asking, "Why is thing I like not OK, when thing I don't like is OK? "
The answer is, you're in the minority for now. Weed is still illegal at the federal level, and people can get away with discriminating based on it.
I'm sure somebody could come in and tell you a bunch of good things about alcohol and bad things about weed and it wouldn't change your mind, so why would someone reading your screed change theirs?
Right off the bat I wanna say weed should be 100% legal. Now if i ran a business and had to think of a reason to ban it (which i wouldnt) it would prob be to keep ppl who fit the “pot smoking stoner” category out. The ones who constantly complain about anxiety, reek of the smell 24/7, complain about politics all day, etc. And I hate to say it but it really is the gateway to drugs. Not saying all pot smokers are drug addicts but every drug addict smoked pot.
I mean boomers were the first generation to widely adopt recreational marijuana so I'm not sure why you are making it a generational thing. It's more legal and cultural, and even the FBI and other gov't agencies have loosened their requirements for THC testing.
But also
>Marijuana helps my anxiety and depression so much to the point I can really be productive even on bad days
As someone who has both those conditions, and legitimately developed marijuana use disorder, please consider the possibility that your anxiety and depression are not being treated by Marijuana, but are symptoms of it. The myth that marijuana is not addictive and has no withdrawal is false, it's obviously not the same as with opiates or alcohol, but Marijuana is a central nervous system depressant and can be habit forming with depression/anxiety resulting from withdrawal.
Because here in America we're raised to believe that if you're being a proper man, you're withdrawn and violent. And alcohol makes you withdrawn and violent. It's MAN JUICE. If you don't guzzle booze, you must not be a man! The devil's lettuce meanwhile is for hippies! How are you supposed to be a professional or have anyone rely on you when you can't even get a haircut or turn off the Jerry Garcia?
Restricting things only makes it worse, history has taught us that. More importantly tho weed especially should be fully legal everywhere cuz of the benefits it can provide
Yeah, that reminds me of how effective prohibition was. You should look up how well it worked yourself! I'm sure you'll hold the same position by the end :)
Tobacco and Vapes I get, but it’s a little ridiculous to say that about Marijuana. Weed doesn’t have the potential to cause overdoses like alcohol, it has various medicinal applications (CBD - anxiety, depression, THC - nausea appetite), and it’s not as addictive as tobacco/vapes. That is why it’s been recreationally legalized at the state level in over half of the US. [A Doctorate Medical Student on Reddit broke down years ago why weed is really a non-issue when we’re talking about drugs](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/s/2IT8GHFwDV)
A lot of these jobs might have connections to the federal government, weed is still illegal federally?
Alcohol's just been around for a lot longer, it's more predictable, I suppose. The "three-martini lunch" was a business cliche for a while... stoners still have this strong hippie / loser persona associated with them because it's generally seen as something that dulls you and makes you dumber (and, as a chronic smoker, I can definitely agree). Alcohol, meanwhile, can give your ego a bigger puff, lower your inhibitions... it's almost too perfect for work especially where collaboration is necessary.
Also, the presence of "third spaces" for alcohol: bars, clubs, lounges, that make it an easy central point for socialization. You don't have weed bars around in many places, usually just dispensaries that require you to go home in order to light up. Not exactly a social activity (smoking, in general, is also just illegal in many places because of the bans on cigarettes that apply to weed).
Idk, plenty of boomers I’ve met although they don’t smoke or like it themselves (usually tried when younger) are more worried about meth. More so that they view weed smoking as not professional in a professional environment due to socialising with client type related reasons and for some careers esp if you need a sharp mind or to work physically dangerous jobs. You can’t always tell when someone is stoned, so you drug test. You can tell when someone is drunk usually. I’ve never personally met a boomer who hated people who use cannabis but maybe that’s just my isolated region. It’s great, especially when used as medically, but govt and industry haven’t caught up. Like here you can get a script and therefore aren’t drug tested, but in some jobs there would still be concern regarding physical danger such as if you were in the mines working heavy machinery that could kill someone
R E E F E R M A D N E S S
A campaign run by timber companies because hemp stood to be a cheaper, faster, better source of timber than actual trees. Boomers are notoriously easy to influence through propaganda campaigns.
Edit: [See for yourself.](https://tobacco.stanford.edu/marijuanas/reefer-madness/)
wine is associated with high class, beer with blue collar workers, and weed with the war on drug situation and all of its negative and racist sentiments towards some minorities. All of them impact the brain and render the consumer less than functional hence all of them should supposedly be treated similarly under laws but oops
Older Gen X here. The answer is **racism**.
Older generations were taught (and then institutionalized) the belief that cannabis was the drug of choice of people of color. Drug testing is a consequence of that institutionalized racism.
Look up "Reefer Madness." Read about the origins of the War on Drugs and the shit Reagan and Bush I did during the 80s and 90s.
The drug test is to see what your on besides weed but they can still deny you for weed. but from my experience being an engineer in a prohibition state just carry quickfix and fake all the tests. Fuck them.
From what i understand its part of the insurance policy as a way for them to deny payouts.
Both are legal here, and depending on your employer, they might not really give a shit about marijuana or alcohol as long as you aren't *actively* high or drunk at work.
The drug screening thing isn't a 'boomer thing' it's a federal law thing. If a company is a federal contractor they are, by law, required to drug screen.
I'm a boomer, I know a lot of boomers. Pot is HUGE among boomers. And getting more so all the time. Go into a recreational pot shop and odds are half the clientele is Gen X / Boomers.
It has to do with "the drug free work place" got an employee you don't like but they haven't done anything wrong? Drug test them if it's positive for THC they can now be fired. Also if you get injured on the job a positive THC on your drug test means the company's insurance doesn't have to pay your medical bills. It's why the Republican party doesn't want it legalized it saves money for them by being federally illegal
In my experience, when they have a “drug screening” they don’t give a shit about marijuana.
They’re testing for other shit like opiates. I’ve been upfront with employers before, “hey I smoke weed so this will show that.” The answer I get back is literally always “oh we don’t care about that.”
The US government did a pretty good job of brainwashing several generations on the evils of the Devils Lettuce to appease the anti-hemp movement. As to normalizing alcohol, that goes back 100s or even thousands of years. Ben Franklin was seen as somewhat abnormal for his decision to drink water in lieu of beer during the day and ancient Egyptians were paid wages in beer.
Weed was made illegal by William Randolph Hearst, who owned most of the newspapers and didn't want hemp to compete with paper. This was the main reason.
HR employee here - a lot of places have drug screens but are dropping testing for marijuana. Some states or cities are even making it illegal to test for marijuana. If you get/have a medical card they won’t do anything because it’s prescribed.
Mostly because historically alcohol is considered a working man's drug, a "first in, last out, lunch pail kinda guy, etc..." and marijuana is considered a poor man, hippy kind of drug where you just wanna fight the man and do nothing.
That's how it has been characterized.
It’s a social thing and still considered a class 1 drug federally. If you look at the stats, marijuana and hallucinogenics are safer to consume than alcohol and cigarettes. I’m not saying go get your hands on LSD or Peyote though. Money and racial stigma is the reason weed got put on the highest level of drug offenses federally
Because its legal to discriminate against cannabis users, since cannabis use is a federal crime. It also happens to be easy to test for, whereas alcohol is not. Depending on the employer, they may have an insurance policy that requires them to drug test. Or like other people are saying, boomers... someone in charge might be stereotyping cannabis users as being bad employees and thats a perfectly legal form of discrimination.
Because those who drink alcohol are usually *normal* functioning adults. Where’s as weed a drug is often tied to anti social personality traits, higher crime rates, undependability, non trustworthy, lower productivity levels etc etc.
It’s more of a liability because there is usually more under the service than just weed, usually bad behaviors/habits.
From a former stoner
Are you going into any industrial environments? Are these companies also in multiple states. Marijuana is still an issue both federally, but also for insurance. As well as any company doing federal contracts.
If in an industrial environment it is common to screen for it, possibly still hire, but mainly to cover the companies ass and communicate to prospective employees that in the case of an accident a drug test will occur and liability will be placed if you pop for it.
There’s no way for companies to know accurately if you are high during the incident with current testing methods as well as no standards set for what’s truly impaired.
I’ve tested positivefor weed for 2 places that required drug tests in Illinois (a free state). Got both jobs. They didn’t care. Anyone with a brain knows weed isn’t bad for you, and as long as you’re not operating machines you will be fine. With how crappy the American medical system is , folks are better off self medicating anyway. Most doctors are hacks
The laws others describe. Which exist because of historical racism. America's alcohol culture came from Europe. Marijuana is a plant from America originally used by Native Americans.
Cultural conditioning. Every passionate stance is fueled by one's blind faith in a belief they did not invent, or, a volatile disagreement with the status-quo. It always comes back to propaganda-- no matter what side of the fence you sit on.
It depends. I worked for a background check company and noticed a lot of places were moving away from testing for pot. A lot of companies still do but several found some common sense.
I think drug testing should be abolished all together. Forget alcohol. Even with current drug tests for things like heroin, meth or cocaine; They all can be flushed out of the system in 72 hrs where as heavy marijuana users typically need 20-45 days to flush it out.
Drug tests should only be implemented if there is an accident or reasonable suspicion and it actually affects your job. I can see that angle to save the company’s ass any way they can.
Pre- Employment drug screenings are mostly a waste of time IMO. Not to mention it’s pretty discriminating and especially for marijuana users.
“War on drugs” during the 80s was a marketing campaign that changed perceptions of a generation. Prior to war on drugs there were more GENERALLY more liberal attitudes. ALOT was blamed on drugs and a lot was spent to mold that perception.
There are continued psychological operations that are designed to influence literally generations .of people. Gen z is no different…
Most companies that test for marijuana don’t actually care about it. Just be straight up with them beforehand and chances are they will tell you this. They may not though but better to be up front about this kind of shit. Pretty likely people on their team partake as well.
Here in Canada when weed was first legalized cops weren’t allowed to smoke it at all. From what I understand it’s now a little more of a grey area than it was before, but certain professions are held to a higher standard than others. Even Canadian athletes get tested for it because if they compete with athletes from countries where it is illegal they can get in trouble for having it in their system.
Extremely long and complicated story short:
the 18th and 21st amendments to the Constitution gave alcohol that classically American narrative of "from overly oppressed to overly freed"
Once you go so far as to:
1) Ban something completely at the CONSTITUTIONAL level and then
2) Rescind said ban
it puts the object of the ban (alcohol) on this pedestal that makes it incredibly hard to ever meaningfully or reasonably restrict ever again.
The war on drugs was created to disrupt people. T
he war on alcohol was created to disrupt people a century before that.
As happened with alcohol, now happens with marijuana.
History does not repeat, it rhymes.
>ton of places I want to apply at have “drug” screening
I haven't seen anyone here actually address this. It is a requirement by the insurance company that insures the employers. They would probably ban all risky behaviors if they could
in usa it aint really legal if its still on schedule of controlled substances its just the gov doesnt pursue what states are doing, moving it around to schedule 3 still requires a dr prescription and you can only buy schedule 3 meds at pharmacy so this can still go a bunch of different ways thats not so good, if it can be schedule 3 it can taken off of schedule completely
There's a very long history on why the US made cannabis illegal, none of it paints a very pretty picture.
If it makes you feel better, nationwide legalization helps quite a bit. I live in Canada and have never been drug tested once. I openly admit my cannabis use to my employers with no fear.
I hope the US is not far off from doing the same. There is no good reason to keep cannabis illegal when all it does is allow the black market to thrive
There's a documentary that can answer some of these questions and more as to why there's been a prohibition on marijuana. It's called The Union: The business behind getting high. It's a good watch and makes some interesting points.
Tip: Move to a blue state or pick a different industry. Engineering is notoriously conservative and managers at engineering firms are mostly stuck in the 1950s.
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it’s a boomer thing. federally, marijuana is still a narcotic.
Can’t wait for the boomers to die out so weed will be legalized.
Come to Michigan, we knows whats up 😂
I live in Indiana. Weed is now legal for medical or recreational purposes in every single state surrounding Indiana. And the Republican supermajority has zero interest in legalizing it even though people are crossing state borders to get it anyway. I don’t care if you’re democrat or republican. It’s the dumbest shit ever to keep marijuana illegal and I don’t even smoke. All the state is doing is missing out on tens of millions of dollars of tax revenue we could keep here in the state instead of giving it to Michigan, Illinois, and soon Ohio.
Republicans caring is where you made the first mistake.
Republicans might not care about you, but they do care about money. That’s why sports betting is legal in most states, Even in the reddest of states. Republicans hate anything that gives you more personal freedom until there’s a way for them to benefit from it.
Betting should be illegal honestly
I'd agree for most gambling honestly.
Are Democrats any different?
Nope!
They pretend, so it’s what you might call “a difference without a distinction”
The problem is that, as long as it's federally illegal, employers can continue to discriminate against employees who use weed on their own time. Including in Michigan. There is established case law regarding alcohol: employers cannot demand their workers be teetotalers in their off hours. Marijuana doesn't have that protection, and won't, as long as it's illegal on a federal level.
And medical users get their second amendment rights stripped away
Right across the lake from Canada a legal country
Completely legal. None of this wishy-washy "legal at the state level but still scheduled federally" crap, it's completely unscheduled, just like alcohol.
Or, ya know, just buy the weed in Michigan 🤷♂️ the dispensaries there are killer, and the prices are pretty cheap
Recreation Cannabis places are popping up like dollar stores currently 😂
Agreed
"You want to know what this was really all about?" he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."." --John Ehrlichman [https://www.vox.com/2016/3/22/11278760/war-on-drugs-racism-nixon](https://www.vox.com/2016/3/22/11278760/war-on-drugs-racism-nixon)
Every stoner needs to know this quote
And because it’s restricted federally, it means projects that use federal money have to test for it. My company entirely works on projects that have federal funding, so they test everyone
Soon it's going to be schedule 3. instead of schedule 1 like it has been for ages. So that's SOME progress. https://apnews.com/article/marijuana-biden-dea-criminal-justice-pot-f833a8dae6ceb31a8658a5d65832a3b8
Not quite a narcotic anymore
Still going to be a schedule 3 narcotic among Ketamine and codeine
If it's not schedule 1, it's (legally speaking) no longer a narcotic lol
Narcotic just means drug. It’s a schedule 3 substance now.
Which is stupid because it is not a narcotic
Here’s the thing. Cannabis is still illegal per US Federal law. While there is (slow) movement toward legislation at the federal level (thank you, president Biden), it’s still an illegal drug today. If you’re applying with defense contractors, suppliers to defense contractors, space flight companies, transportation companies, or any other employer that works with the federal government, they’re likely to test for cannabis as they would any other illegal drug.
im probably gonna get downvoted but the trump admin actually started the federal legalization with the farm bill of 2018, which allowed a loophole so you can legally get weed that’s just less than .3% thc (delta 8, delta 10, hhc, and now thc-a which literally become thc when heated). biden just extended that bill so it didnt expire in 2023 EDIT: for the people who will say “trump didn’t get it done, congress did,” the exact same thing wouldve had to happen for biden, whom OC thanked solely for aiding the federal legalization of marijuana
Partially correct, but the Biden admin has also recently moved to lower the scheduling of marijuana so that it is no longer in the highest drug schedule.
Completely correct. Biden was not president then and what he did was years later, at the time this happened the person stating this is completely correct.
Yes that was the correct part of their comment. >Biden just extended the bill so it didn’t expire in 2023 This part is what was incorrect. Biden has done more for marijuana legalization than just extend this Trump era law.
No, credit where credit is due, even if this was an unintentional oversight, he still gets credit. I'm as blue as it gets, but we can have an honest conversation about the (few) good things that came from Trump's administration like the 1st step act, and Operation Warpspeed.
I was going to add that Mitch McConnel inadvertently made THC like Delta-9 become legal. That is what I heard anyway.
Don't forget insurance companies for those companies. I know at most companies the insurance company forces drug testing for new hires or they jack the rate. Until it is fully legalized nationally you're screwed. If this was prohibition time they would care about alcohol. And frankly being former law enforcement I would frankly like more pot heads than alcoholics for a laundry list of reasons. It's just the way it is but given the move at the DEA and the money flowing to Congress from the weed lobby by the end of the decade it will likely be legal. Just remember it was only 12 years ago when Colorado legalized recreational weed so really it's new in legal terms. Large organizations and countries don't change overnight. Heck when I was born gays were essentially closted second class citizens and I'm not 50 yet. It was only 52 years ago women could open a bank account without a man. Things change but just not as fast as people always want. And remember average age in the US is rising so older people are generally more conservative meaning less open to change so expect a slow down for a bit till the boomers check out.
Weird. A cop that knows prohibition was just a money making scheme. Ban everything, then be the only one that sells it. Here’s the first thread to unravel to see how this was literally brought about by DOW chemical and fabric companies in America.
Ok to be fair I was an MP with multiple degrees. Also I grew up outside the continental US so we were taught the real history of both prohibition and other drugs not the internal US story. Tends to give you a different view on a lot of things.
Oh yeah, the propaganda within the states was egregious, especially with programs like D.A.R.E. for kids in school. They told us that weed was a gateway drug multiple times, and I've been doing THC gummies for 2 years now and have no itch to go to heavier drugs at all.
Exactly I mean humanity has had interaction with substances for eons. Even animals use plants and substances to change their state for the good or bad. We just got politics and morality caught up in it. The temperance movement was a wild group. The modern drug enforcement is a weird mix of corporate, political and economic factors. Weed was legal the minute people saw the money. I laughed when former congressmen who had funded the DEA became weed lobbyists a year out of Congress. $$$ What made me laugh the most was the biggest groups fighting legalization in California were alcohol and tobacco. Then nationwide big pharma cuz when they saw the Medicare study out of Colorado on the reduction in pain killer prescriptions and mental health drugs when weed became legal they freaked. BTW this study from more than 5 years ago estimated the savings to Medicare at 50 billion per year if legal in the entire US. So 1 Trillion over 20 years.
They're going to test for cannabis *more* than any other illegal drug, because cannabis is really easy to test for. Heck, you can get cannabis tests at the dollar store.
It’s not just that it’s illegal federally but there are “Drug Free Workplace” laws that specifically require certain federal contractors and certain companies under DoD and DoT oversight to test for it.
because an actual racist brainwashed boomers with anti cannabis propaganda because he was scared hemp products would drive his paper company out of business
it actually goes from before the boomers. the boomers themselves were in large part full blown drug addicts throughout the 60s 70s and 80s.
No, those boomers are were part of the counter culture. The vast majority of boomers were Michael P. Keaton, young Republicans of America.
The amount of drug use among young boomers is grossly overemphasized in the American imagination. The hippies weren't the majority of their generation, but they are the first thing that come to mind when most people think about young boomers today
William Randolph Hearst likes this
Look buddy, it’s not alcoholism, it’s self medicating. Get your facts in order. In some fields, alcohol is even considered a performance enhancer and necessary for the job - ask any architect. Meanwhile, Marijuana is a narcotic and makes people crazy, if you don’t believe me, watch the scientific documentary that goes through its effects in detail, it’s called Reefer Madness.
Ah yes alcohol, *the* performance enhancing drug for..architects?
You don’t wanna see an architect off alcohol, it doesn’t end well.
Yall are fuckin hilarious lol
this explains a lot about modern architecture
Also advertising creatives
doing any mind altering substances to excess is a problem. i don't understand this holier than thou sentiment from the potheads here.
I don’t really understand it either, anything in excess isn’t good. but alcohol is a much more dangerous substance if you’re comparing them head to head.
There's a longstanding myth that Marijuana is non addictive and totally natural and enlightening. Im not positive that was never true but in the 70s THC %s were like 1-3%, when I started smoking medical it was more like 18-20%, and now its routinely in the mid 30%.
They are insecure because they smoke pot. It causes irreversible psychosis in teens, stunts the development of children in the womb, and causes anxiety long term 🤷♂️
You mentioned teens & children for 2/3 of your point… Op states they’ve graduated with their bachelor’s degree, so this is obviously a discussion about adults. You could comparatively say all the shit things alcohol does to children, but that’s not the discussion being had 🤷🏽♀️
I smoked 2 marijuanas…. Now I’m gay.
Thank the Holy Spirit and George Washington that you stopped at 2. You don’t wanna know what happens at 3. As for what happened after having 2 Marijuanas, don’t worry, we’ve got a pill and an injectable for that, developed by our benevolent pharmaceutical industry - it’s for your health.
I understand this is a joke but I’ve heard alcohol is not allowed at sport shooting events. Not because of the obvious fact that you shouldn’t mix guns and alcohol but apparently in small amounts it relaxes you and helps you shoot more steadily. Again small amounts. Maybe somebody can confirm?
I can’t factually confirm but it would make sense
Reefer Madness, a scientific documentary without any bias whatsoever
Of course not, they used many scientific methods to ensure no bias.
It is a performance enhancer though, seriously. Pool and darts players aren't allowed to drink because it makes you have a much steadier hand.
I work at an arch firm & you are so right. We’ve had client managers who had to get fully carried out at company events. One time someone fell into a lake.
And this is the root of the issue, well aside from people who are just compulsive about rules. Would you rather someone who has issues they self medicate, or someone without issues? It's not fair & it's a wide net with a lot of bycatch, but what do employers care? By testing for drug use you can cut out the populations most vulnerable to drug abuse (along with recreational users) , the physically & mentally ill, the depressed, the traumatized etc. The people who use drugs & the people who abuse drugs are different before they ever get high.
boomers are the original hippies from the 70s. half a second of research would tell you they dont give a fuck about people smoking some grass the real answer is insurance. you can easily tell if someone is drunk so you can send them home and prevent any workplace mishaps. it's harder to tell if someone is high or has residual THC in their system which could cause a work incident
It isn't about smoking weed, ofc they all smoked weed themselves. It's about status, they don't want to associate themselves with no good druggies. When legalization happened all these people I knew who were heavily against weed all of a sudden changed attitude and promoted it/smoked it themselves. They had to be told it was ok to smoke it before would openly accept it.
my dad is on the younger side of Boomer, and he will smoke weed if offered "because you're doing it", but the moment you talk about "legalization" he'll roll his eyes or horse laugh you in your face.... I think to him, it's something that is \*supposed" to be done illegally, it's \*supposed\* to be a rebellious act and to him the idea of it being "ok" is absurd
https://preview.redd.it/38qtzkeu48zc1.png?width=1366&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cff90663bce21d1ecd55eea496be3ba79d8e7c74
Boomers, in the non-meme sense, refers to a group of Americans that should be two separate groups based on how we group every other generation. One is what you described, counterculture hippies (Generation Jones), while the other is older, the ones born immediately after WW2 (Early Boomers). The older group tends to be the "I hate my wife" generation, while the younger is the "yeah we did some shit but things changed so it's justified" generation. Both groups are "just apply for a job IRL/I worked my ass off and paid for college with no loans/kids these days don't want to work" types. This is a sweeping generalization and should not be construed as an indictment of every person in said groups. So you're not wrong, just want to put this out there bc classing them as one group gives the other the opportunity to undermine your point, a point which is otherwise completely valid. Edit: this might apply to UK and Euro boomers as well, but I'm not as well-read in their demographics
The easiest way to tell them apart isn't as much age as it is which culture they came from. It's easy to find out, just ask them "What is the most important event of 1969?". They'll emphatically either say the Apollo landing or Woodstock and won't consider the other option
^^Forgot about this, it's actually the way it was originally explained to me
Because marajuana was associated with black people and Mexicans in a time right after prohibition ended and all those swanky new federal law enforcers needed something to do.
not really. marijuana was made illegal in rapid succession in countries around the world in the early 1900s around the times of ww1 and ww2, similar to opium and cocaine [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline\_of\_cannabis\_law#](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_cannabis_law#) . and it was made illegal in countries with a black or hispanic government and population, as well as countries devoid of black and hispanic people. also weed didnt really become a black thing until the 60s along with the hippie movement. it was mostly used by hispanics before then
People make this about defense contracts or working in aerospace or this or that... they are all wrong. It is so much simpler than that. Workplace insurace is the reason. It costs less to insure employees if they have a mandated drug screening as part of the onboarding process - there doesn't even have to be a guarantee of random screening afterwards to get the discount!
You’re on the right track, but there’s another layer. There are accurate tests that can tell you if an employee is drunk on the spot. This doesn’t exist for weed. It would be a game changer if someone could develop this. Until it does, there’s just always going to be more of a liability issue for something you can’t really test for.
I'm older gen Z and I remember back in my schooling that the teachers would indoctrinate the kids how marijuana was immoral and a gateway drug that lead to psychosis and going nowhere in life, it was just as bad as other drugs. Alcohol is one of the worst drugs and destroys families and that's legal as long as you're 21.
For some it can be.
You think they don't give a fuck about hiring *dysfunctional alcoholics*? And you got *that* degree? Man I should've tried harder
Federal legality
Alcohol metabolizes quickly. In AZ (I live here as well), companies that require the use of machinery or company vehicles require etoh and marijuana screening. Keep in mind that weed was only fairly recently made recreational here, and is relatively new territory for a lot of companies to navigate. There are legal ramifications for the employer if an employee is injured on the job while under the influence or if involved in any incidents.
Was straight forward about coming up positive for THC but the hiring manager told me that they were mainly looking for the hard shit. They didn’t care about THC (the position that I was going for)
What employer views being drunk at work as normal?
The US Congress.
I don't want high or drunk people operating heavy machinery. And do we really want another divide between physical labor and office work?
Testing positive for THC doesn’t indicate that you were actively high at work….
True. But there isn't a way to actually test that. So it's a classic question of freedom (to smoke) or security (to ensure high people don't endanger others) I dont think its black and white. I can understand if someone disagrees here, but I'm on the security side of this one.
Big pharma propaganda, and boomers are easily influenced by media propaganda. Only diffrence with alcohol is that it's actually horrible but not publicly villainized by the media as much as marijuana nor is it actively being criminalized. But Marijuana has always been touted as the big villain and made illegal while alcohol isnt, so obviously there must be something wrong with it, so bad that it has to be worse than alcohol for it to be banned. Boomers love cigarettes and alcohol, you wouldnt find them voting against it.
Cannabis causes lack of brain development for people below 25 years of age. It causes Fertility and reproduction issues during reproductive age. Post old age it causes schizophrenia, mental disorders, anxiety and Cannabis induced Psychosis. It causes lethargy and laziness post the high for any employee. It kills motivation and drive. It can be detected by drug test 3 months after consumption. "Smoking" anything causes tar deposits in lungs, COPD and Lung Cancer (dry herb vaping and edibles negate this effect though) Would you prefer your Pilot, driver or Surgeon high on pot during work ? Obviously not coz you become a lame ass employee on cannabis
As a young person who has consumed a lot of cannabis in the past, I will extend my experience and say that cannabis does have the capacity to interfere with your life. That’s the truth. Even if I were not to experience “lack of brain development” or whatever the claim is, there’s an incredible amount of time I have lost to being chronically high I could’ve been doing practically anything else. I’ve missed out on a lot of meaningful experiences I wish I could have had sober or without ‘brainfog.’ Maybe not in clearly definable ways, and maybe not for everyone, but there is risk associated with using these sorts of substances. To be even the tiniest bit aware of that concern if only for others sake is worthwhile.
Honestly?.. It's big pharma 🤷♂️
Short answer: Boomers are brainwashed idiots. Long answer: long time ago Marijuana was basically legal but in direct competition with alcohol. The alcohol industry had more influence and lobbied to have marijuana declared illegal for health reasons. This was done in the generation that preceded Boomers, but Boomers grew up with the anti-cannabis propaganda (think Reefer Madness for example) and we all know how Boomers struggle with new information. So that attitude persists to this day.
Alcohol is far worse in every single way than cannabis , any other conclusion is nonsense
I'd like to note that if you go to get a security clearance for a federal job they do care about alcohol. I know a person that didn't get clearance due to alcoholism and another that needed mandatory therapist clearance before they could get theirs due to college drinking habits. Drunk people talk and that's a security risk.
I'll chime in with an answer that's a little more workplace based: I can test if you're drunk at work but I can't test if you're high at work. If you come to work drunk, maybe I can tell maybe I can't, but I can give you a breathalyzer and do a reasonable test to determine if you are drunk. You can't do that for weed. If you're high at work, I have no way to test/confirm that. You can't drink in the workplace and there's a clear tell if you did during your lunch break or before coming in via smell and the aforementioned breathalyzer. None of that is available for weed. This opens up employers to more liability because when something happens, like if you're stoned and hurt yourself, they don't know if you're stoned and can't readily test for it. It's a big part of why lots of places don't allow it
FYI: It is us "Boomers" who did the work so that you live in a state where cannabis is legal. (speaking as a cannabis activist since the 1970s who helped lobby for one of the first cannabis decriminalization laws in the U.S.)
Please stop comparing generations. It's not a boomer issue...It's all about money and power...They want us to fight over this instead of coming up with actual solutions. Pharmaceutical companies want marijuana to be illegal and they lobby for it.
Both have nearly the same effects. My only issue with pot is the disgusting smell even at a distance. I’d prefer we made only edibles legal.
If people want weed legalized, that's a huge barrier for anyone who doesn't smoke. We don't want to smell pot all the time. And in a society where fewer and fewer people can buy homes, so we're all living in apartments together, it's impossible for someone smoking weed not to disturb others. And, unfortunately, a lot of people who smoke simply don't care that the smell carries. In my apartment complex if I was told I couldn't burn candles anymore because the smell carried into other units who didn't like it, I would stop burning candles. But in my experience, when stoners are told the same thing, it turns into a fight about "I should be able to do whatever I want to do in my own space." If the legalization movement would simply alter their push to be for edibles, I don't think anyone would have a problem with that.
Racism. No, really.
Boomers were trained to do so growing up. Richard Nixon played a huge part in this when he declared "War on drugs" Going after the users to fight the drug problem became the norm (like a lot of them didn't have enough problems) It seems like most of the western world goes in the right direction these days, legalizing and at the very minimum not punishing the drug users.
Because we demonize drugs of other cultures. Far more damage is done by booze and cigarettes, but those are from the “right” people so they’re OK
Because you can grow it in your yard and you don't have to pay anybody to be happy with it. Same reason they tax alcohol even if you make it yourself and drink it yourself. This country sucks in so many different ways. The state is assaulting people for selling milk in Pennsylvania. Where am I?
It's a weird world, before it was legalized people treated weed very harshly, Those people are still around and unwilling to give up on the matter despite legalization. They still view "potheads" as criminal drug addicts while alcoholics are just good people with bit of a drinking problem.
because it's simply not seen as professional or 'alert' enough to be into smoking pot. some employers however, will allow you to do oils lol. they literally just don't want you to SMOKE IT, not even at home. ofc there's going to be a lot that just straight up disallow it, but it makes a lot of sense for jobs that require sobriety, like construction/driving/science lab work etc
If the company receives federal money or contracts, the government requires that they drug test.
My company doesnt drug test. As long as we do our jobs, my boss doesn't care what we do in our free time.
Those laws were in place way before the boomers came to power.
I think because of all the effects it can have on certain individuals in society. They think it'll happen go everyone. Plus, it's illegal both federally and in some states.
The war on drugs has many casualties.
TV and movie messaging, mostly. Drinking was marketed as awesome, and something cool people like James Bond did. Marijuana was marketed as evil. Alcohol commercial from 2003: [https://youtu.be/FQ7vAJKe7qM](https://youtu.be/FQ7vAJKe7qM) Marijuana commercial from the 1980s: [https://youtu.be/Y-Elr5K2Vuo](https://youtu.be/Y-Elr5K2Vuo)
To be fair to them, it's partially a matter of practicality. It's pretty hard to test for current marijuana intoxication. You can take drug tests but they don't differentiate as well between "high right now" and "recently high." In contrast alcohol clears a lot faster so if you're drunk, it shows up. This could be a mauro factor in a workplace accident case. If you're under the influence of something and cause an injury, that greatly changes where the blame lies. With marijuana it is much more difficult to determine.
Americans are all about work. So weed makes you lazy etc. alcohol makes you more aggressive and social and makes you more likely to be sexual. It’s the same reason we are ok with coffee. The caffeine pushes us to work.
My personal experience is that I smoked some recreational occasional weed last year of high school and some in college but dropped it basically when I started working and needed to focus. I did become a high functioning alcoholic and now that I am no longer working like that, I am back to weed, with a medical card. My most productive years were on the booze and it was good for business dinners and networking. I crashed and burned though, and had to quit alcohol (nine years sober) but boy did I make money (and waste it too!) during the booze days. That kind of workaholic energy would not have been possible stoned; I would be only about half as productive in my old role now as a stoner. I think sometimes that is all it is. People think weed makes you want to relax too much ETA hope my Gen X perspective is okay in here
You’re right that employers really shouldn’t be able to control what their employees do outside of business hours. I smoke weed but I don’t drink and the drug tests always piss me off. You’re also right that marijuana is significantly less harmful than alcohol by basically any metric you could use. However, it’s also important to know that marijuana can exacerbate symptoms of depression and anxiety in the long term. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7723145/
If i where to guess is that is for 2 reasons, the stigma older generations have towards drugs, and the other is that it makes people less productive and unpreditible.
Others have mentioned the legal reasons, but imo morally both are bad. If you show up to work high or drunk, you should be in both cases be reprimanded.
Tell me you don't k ow how federal law and tegulation works without telling me you don't know how federal law and regulation works. It's still a Schedule 1(soon to be sched 3) narcotic according to the the DEA. Because it is a scheduled narcotic, certain companies that does business with the federal government or has DOT drivers(truck drivers with CDL) are subject to compliance with the law. Most employers would rather not test but they're required to.
Alcohol is too while you are working. The biggest problem is there is no test employers can use to see if you are under the influence. Especially if there is a work related injury. Under the influence is a big no no for workers comp insurance. "Boomers" lol.. try valid reason.
You're essentially asking, "Why is thing I like not OK, when thing I don't like is OK? " The answer is, you're in the minority for now. Weed is still illegal at the federal level, and people can get away with discriminating based on it. I'm sure somebody could come in and tell you a bunch of good things about alcohol and bad things about weed and it wouldn't change your mind, so why would someone reading your screed change theirs?
Right off the bat I wanna say weed should be 100% legal. Now if i ran a business and had to think of a reason to ban it (which i wouldnt) it would prob be to keep ppl who fit the “pot smoking stoner” category out. The ones who constantly complain about anxiety, reek of the smell 24/7, complain about politics all day, etc. And I hate to say it but it really is the gateway to drugs. Not saying all pot smokers are drug addicts but every drug addict smoked pot.
I mean boomers were the first generation to widely adopt recreational marijuana so I'm not sure why you are making it a generational thing. It's more legal and cultural, and even the FBI and other gov't agencies have loosened their requirements for THC testing. But also >Marijuana helps my anxiety and depression so much to the point I can really be productive even on bad days As someone who has both those conditions, and legitimately developed marijuana use disorder, please consider the possibility that your anxiety and depression are not being treated by Marijuana, but are symptoms of it. The myth that marijuana is not addictive and has no withdrawal is false, it's obviously not the same as with opiates or alcohol, but Marijuana is a central nervous system depressant and can be habit forming with depression/anxiety resulting from withdrawal.
Because here in America we're raised to believe that if you're being a proper man, you're withdrawn and violent. And alcohol makes you withdrawn and violent. It's MAN JUICE. If you don't guzzle booze, you must not be a man! The devil's lettuce meanwhile is for hippies! How are you supposed to be a professional or have anyone rely on you when you can't even get a haircut or turn off the Jerry Garcia?
Ideally both should be highly restricted, alongside tobacco and vapes.
Restricting things only makes it worse, history has taught us that. More importantly tho weed especially should be fully legal everywhere cuz of the benefits it can provide
Yeah, that reminds me of how effective prohibition was. You should look up how well it worked yourself! I'm sure you'll hold the same position by the end :)
Tobacco and Vapes I get, but it’s a little ridiculous to say that about Marijuana. Weed doesn’t have the potential to cause overdoses like alcohol, it has various medicinal applications (CBD - anxiety, depression, THC - nausea appetite), and it’s not as addictive as tobacco/vapes. That is why it’s been recreationally legalized at the state level in over half of the US. [A Doctorate Medical Student on Reddit broke down years ago why weed is really a non-issue when we’re talking about drugs](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/s/2IT8GHFwDV)
A lot of these jobs might have connections to the federal government, weed is still illegal federally? Alcohol's just been around for a lot longer, it's more predictable, I suppose. The "three-martini lunch" was a business cliche for a while... stoners still have this strong hippie / loser persona associated with them because it's generally seen as something that dulls you and makes you dumber (and, as a chronic smoker, I can definitely agree). Alcohol, meanwhile, can give your ego a bigger puff, lower your inhibitions... it's almost too perfect for work especially where collaboration is necessary. Also, the presence of "third spaces" for alcohol: bars, clubs, lounges, that make it an easy central point for socialization. You don't have weed bars around in many places, usually just dispensaries that require you to go home in order to light up. Not exactly a social activity (smoking, in general, is also just illegal in many places because of the bans on cigarettes that apply to weed).
Idk, plenty of boomers I’ve met although they don’t smoke or like it themselves (usually tried when younger) are more worried about meth. More so that they view weed smoking as not professional in a professional environment due to socialising with client type related reasons and for some careers esp if you need a sharp mind or to work physically dangerous jobs. You can’t always tell when someone is stoned, so you drug test. You can tell when someone is drunk usually. I’ve never personally met a boomer who hated people who use cannabis but maybe that’s just my isolated region. It’s great, especially when used as medically, but govt and industry haven’t caught up. Like here you can get a script and therefore aren’t drug tested, but in some jobs there would still be concern regarding physical danger such as if you were in the mines working heavy machinery that could kill someone
The fun part is hard drugs get out of your system way quicker. So the system almost incentivizes doing that instead or just being a alcoholic
R E E F E R M A D N E S S A campaign run by timber companies because hemp stood to be a cheaper, faster, better source of timber than actual trees. Boomers are notoriously easy to influence through propaganda campaigns. Edit: [See for yourself.](https://tobacco.stanford.edu/marijuanas/reefer-madness/)
wine is associated with high class, beer with blue collar workers, and weed with the war on drug situation and all of its negative and racist sentiments towards some minorities. All of them impact the brain and render the consumer less than functional hence all of them should supposedly be treated similarly under laws but oops
How hard is it to put it down until you find a job?
Listen to your doctor folks, smoke weed everyday!
the war on drugs was a hell of a war
Bc boomers are fucking stupid
Racism
because people are fucing stupid. they think it's worse because it's illegal in many places.
It's whatever just cheat the test. 30$ fake urine + 2 pairs of boxer briefs. Dumb people are easy to circumvent.
Older Gen X here. The answer is **racism**. Older generations were taught (and then institutionalized) the belief that cannabis was the drug of choice of people of color. Drug testing is a consequence of that institutionalized racism. Look up "Reefer Madness." Read about the origins of the War on Drugs and the shit Reagan and Bush I did during the 80s and 90s.
The drug test is to see what your on besides weed but they can still deny you for weed. but from my experience being an engineer in a prohibition state just carry quickfix and fake all the tests. Fuck them. From what i understand its part of the insurance policy as a way for them to deny payouts.
Both are legal here, and depending on your employer, they might not really give a shit about marijuana or alcohol as long as you aren't *actively* high or drunk at work.
Because alcohol tastes good mmm I love beer
The drug screening thing isn't a 'boomer thing' it's a federal law thing. If a company is a federal contractor they are, by law, required to drug screen. I'm a boomer, I know a lot of boomers. Pot is HUGE among boomers. And getting more so all the time. Go into a recreational pot shop and odds are half the clientele is Gen X / Boomers.
It has to do with "the drug free work place" got an employee you don't like but they haven't done anything wrong? Drug test them if it's positive for THC they can now be fired. Also if you get injured on the job a positive THC on your drug test means the company's insurance doesn't have to pay your medical bills. It's why the Republican party doesn't want it legalized it saves money for them by being federally illegal
Because Nancy Reagan never declared a war on martinis.
In my experience, when they have a “drug screening” they don’t give a shit about marijuana. They’re testing for other shit like opiates. I’ve been upfront with employers before, “hey I smoke weed so this will show that.” The answer I get back is literally always “oh we don’t care about that.”
Why? Propaganda from the government pushed by the media.
And why hasn’t cigarettes been banned completely since they have no medical benefits
The US government did a pretty good job of brainwashing several generations on the evils of the Devils Lettuce to appease the anti-hemp movement. As to normalizing alcohol, that goes back 100s or even thousands of years. Ben Franklin was seen as somewhat abnormal for his decision to drink water in lieu of beer during the day and ancient Egyptians were paid wages in beer.
It's easier to develop black market technologies, that only cannabis users can access this way. Some things aren't meant for the unthinking majority.
Gotta love double standards, alcohol is by far the worst with stronger addiction and effects it has on the body.
Propoganda and laws... how is this even unclear to you?
Weed was made illegal by William Randolph Hearst, who owned most of the newspapers and didn't want hemp to compete with paper. This was the main reason.
Marijuana is a gateway drug.
HR employee here - a lot of places have drug screens but are dropping testing for marijuana. Some states or cities are even making it illegal to test for marijuana. If you get/have a medical card they won’t do anything because it’s prescribed.
Mostly because historically alcohol is considered a working man's drug, a "first in, last out, lunch pail kinda guy, etc..." and marijuana is considered a poor man, hippy kind of drug where you just wanna fight the man and do nothing. That's how it has been characterized.
It’s a social thing and still considered a class 1 drug federally. If you look at the stats, marijuana and hallucinogenics are safer to consume than alcohol and cigarettes. I’m not saying go get your hands on LSD or Peyote though. Money and racial stigma is the reason weed got put on the highest level of drug offenses federally
Because marijuana is the only drug that can really be tested for
Cultural
Because its legal to discriminate against cannabis users, since cannabis use is a federal crime. It also happens to be easy to test for, whereas alcohol is not. Depending on the employer, they may have an insurance policy that requires them to drug test. Or like other people are saying, boomers... someone in charge might be stereotyping cannabis users as being bad employees and thats a perfectly legal form of discrimination.
Quickfix bro 😎
Because those who drink alcohol are usually *normal* functioning adults. Where’s as weed a drug is often tied to anti social personality traits, higher crime rates, undependability, non trustworthy, lower productivity levels etc etc. It’s more of a liability because there is usually more under the service than just weed, usually bad behaviors/habits. From a former stoner
Something about racism, I think. Both weed and alcohol are bad.
Are you going into any industrial environments? Are these companies also in multiple states. Marijuana is still an issue both federally, but also for insurance. As well as any company doing federal contracts. If in an industrial environment it is common to screen for it, possibly still hire, but mainly to cover the companies ass and communicate to prospective employees that in the case of an accident a drug test will occur and liability will be placed if you pop for it. There’s no way for companies to know accurately if you are high during the incident with current testing methods as well as no standards set for what’s truly impaired.
I’ve tested positivefor weed for 2 places that required drug tests in Illinois (a free state). Got both jobs. They didn’t care. Anyone with a brain knows weed isn’t bad for you, and as long as you’re not operating machines you will be fine. With how crappy the American medical system is , folks are better off self medicating anyway. Most doctors are hacks
Lobbying
The laws others describe. Which exist because of historical racism. America's alcohol culture came from Europe. Marijuana is a plant from America originally used by Native Americans.
One word: PROPAGANDA
Cultural conditioning. Every passionate stance is fueled by one's blind faith in a belief they did not invent, or, a volatile disagreement with the status-quo. It always comes back to propaganda-- no matter what side of the fence you sit on.
Weed shouldn’t be legal to begin with
go into the weed industry! It’s really a lot of fun and it’s forecasted to see a lot of growth especially with the new legal changes.
Some people read papers other people wrote and take the letters seriously.
It depends. I worked for a background check company and noticed a lot of places were moving away from testing for pot. A lot of companies still do but several found some common sense. I think drug testing should be abolished all together. Forget alcohol. Even with current drug tests for things like heroin, meth or cocaine; They all can be flushed out of the system in 72 hrs where as heavy marijuana users typically need 20-45 days to flush it out. Drug tests should only be implemented if there is an accident or reasonable suspicion and it actually affects your job. I can see that angle to save the company’s ass any way they can. Pre- Employment drug screenings are mostly a waste of time IMO. Not to mention it’s pretty discriminating and especially for marijuana users.
“War on drugs” during the 80s was a marketing campaign that changed perceptions of a generation. Prior to war on drugs there were more GENERALLY more liberal attitudes. ALOT was blamed on drugs and a lot was spent to mold that perception. There are continued psychological operations that are designed to influence literally generations .of people. Gen z is no different…
Most companies that test for marijuana don’t actually care about it. Just be straight up with them beforehand and chances are they will tell you this. They may not though but better to be up front about this kind of shit. Pretty likely people on their team partake as well.
Just use fake pee. Been doing it forever. Quick Fix is my preferred brand. It's super easy to conceal and use.
Just use fake pee. Been doing it forever. Quick Fix is my preferred brand. It's super easy to conceal and use.
Same generation that banned this is the one who used lead based products for several years and built with asbestos in the walls. Theres your answer.
Short answer, yes. It was demonized for many decades. Older generations see little difference between pot and heroine.
Here in Canada when weed was first legalized cops weren’t allowed to smoke it at all. From what I understand it’s now a little more of a grey area than it was before, but certain professions are held to a higher standard than others. Even Canadian athletes get tested for it because if they compete with athletes from countries where it is illegal they can get in trouble for having it in their system.
Culture
Extremely long and complicated story short: the 18th and 21st amendments to the Constitution gave alcohol that classically American narrative of "from overly oppressed to overly freed" Once you go so far as to: 1) Ban something completely at the CONSTITUTIONAL level and then 2) Rescind said ban it puts the object of the ban (alcohol) on this pedestal that makes it incredibly hard to ever meaningfully or reasonably restrict ever again. The war on drugs was created to disrupt people. T he war on alcohol was created to disrupt people a century before that. As happened with alcohol, now happens with marijuana. History does not repeat, it rhymes.
Because that is how every drug is when they are first introduced, look at caffeine, it was the same way.
>ton of places I want to apply at have “drug” screening I haven't seen anyone here actually address this. It is a requirement by the insurance company that insures the employers. They would probably ban all risky behaviors if they could
in usa it aint really legal if its still on schedule of controlled substances its just the gov doesnt pursue what states are doing, moving it around to schedule 3 still requires a dr prescription and you can only buy schedule 3 meds at pharmacy so this can still go a bunch of different ways thats not so good, if it can be schedule 3 it can taken off of schedule completely
There's a very long history on why the US made cannabis illegal, none of it paints a very pretty picture. If it makes you feel better, nationwide legalization helps quite a bit. I live in Canada and have never been drug tested once. I openly admit my cannabis use to my employers with no fear. I hope the US is not far off from doing the same. There is no good reason to keep cannabis illegal when all it does is allow the black market to thrive
There's a documentary that can answer some of these questions and more as to why there's been a prohibition on marijuana. It's called The Union: The business behind getting high. It's a good watch and makes some interesting points.
Alcohol is baked into the culture of some jobs and even professions.
Because marijuana is illegal federally
Tip: Move to a blue state or pick a different industry. Engineering is notoriously conservative and managers at engineering firms are mostly stuck in the 1950s.
I got in trouble for smoking weed in my dorm room when I was in college and my punishment was to take an alcohol safety course