I think this is a very valid question. If I were operating a bulldozer on a Monday morning I would not be eating a pot brownie Sunday after dinner -- nor would I be drinking a lot of bourbon Sunday night. I would be making sure I got good sleep and was at 100% when I arrived at work.
But again, cannabis being legal or illegal doesn't have too much to do with this. I can go to CVS and buy all sorts of cold medicines and sleeping pills that would make me a very dangerous operator of heavy equipment.
Let alone the literally thousands of prescription meds that can affect people's alertness and coordination.
Ultimately it comes down to the quality of the employee and their sense of responsibility for their family, co-workers, customers and boss -- all these people are depending on them to be sober and do their job safely.
I think for heavy equipment operators, or bus drivers or pilots, drug testing makes a lot of sense -- and not just pre-employment testing but random on the job testing.
However, drug testing for most employees -- sales reps, graphic designers, writers, office clerks, janitors -- that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Ridding your office of people who smoke pot probably won't make you a more productive workplace -- and in some businesses it means you won't get applications from some of the most creative, talented people -- those people are going to go to your competitors and make a lot of money for THEM.
And some of those people aren't even pot smokers, but they won't work for a company that does drug testing. Blame it on millennials but it is the reality in a lot of businesses. If millennials don't want to work for your company, you're in trouble.
People who have never spent time around pot smokers tend to only think of the Cheech and Chong stereotype. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people who fit the stereotype. But there are many, many more who do not -- I know a lot of pot smokers who are pretty much model citizens, pillars of of their communities and leaders in their work places. You would never know these people light up after they put their kids to bed.
Consider California. It's a pot smoker's paradise, has been for 15 years now. Even before legalization, you go to a doctor, say you have a headache, and you would get a medical card and the right to order up pot deliveries as easy as ordering a pizza.
If there was anyplace where widespread pot use would have a negative impact on productivity, you'd figure it would be Cali. But instead, Cali has BY FAR the most dynamic economy in the nation. Cali creates more jobs than every red state put together.
That's not scientific evidence of anything, but I do think it is telling you that pot smoking and capitalism actually get along pretty well together.
See, I know a guy that has a construction company. One of his guys, that was known to smoke every weekend and sometimes in between, fell 12' and had a piece of rebar pierce is his left lung. Fortunately he made a full recovery.
However, OSHA fined the owner and the company had a higher worker's comp rate for an extended period of time, I believe two years. If the worker had injured another worker, my friend and his company would likely have faced a major lawsuit.
So if one eats a wonder browny on Sunday afternoon that has the equivalence of four joints, how long is it before he/she is safe to drive a car, operate heavy equipment, do surgery, fly a plane or any other of the complex things people do? Who has the liability when one violates whatever standards that are established? How expensive is it to regularly test employees? What indications are there to justify testing an employee? How many times can you test a person before they claim harassment or some other offense?
