Drug Screening / Testing in EMS

[Mountain Res-Q]

you know me, mind altering substances all the way.

"And the truth shall set you free!"-Jim Carrey, Liar Liar

 

[emt seeking first job]

ummmm....

You have to decide.

Public Safety or mind altering drugs.

I beleive all drugs should be legal.

http://www.leap.cc/

However, there should be extensive testing as condition for employment for things like health care, public safety, operating machinery etc.

They will randomly test you and will test your hair. That takes 30-90 days to get out of your system. Furthermore, someone you work with will find out and justifiably report you.

Stick to music, art, or some creative endeavor.

Nobody will want to deal with you. You will have it on you. It will get ripped off, someone will rip you off, you will owe people money. People will come by where you work looking for you. You :censored::censored::censored::censored:ing smell!!!!!

Dude, go back to your mom's basement, video games and skateboards. You have no business working anywhere on or near and ambulance.

Once again, I think drugs should be legal but certain professions and endeavors should test for drugs and bar the users from participating.

I see no reason why Willie Nelson (in fact I WANT him to) can not toke up, but, not anyone working the street with me.

Make your choice now. Mind altering drugs or EMS. You absolutely can never ever have both.

 

[emt seeking first job]

cannabis is much healthier than alcohol no im not trolling, so many damn prudes on here

No it is not.

Everyone I know who drank heavily growing up is still sharp.

Everyone I know who did pot is now a space cadet.

It is not about being a prude. It is about making a choice. Pot or EMS.

End of discussion.

Period.

 

[Veneficus]

You have to decide.

Public Safety or mind altering drugs.

I beleive all drugs should be legal.

http://www.leap.cc/

However, there should be extensive testing as condition for employment for things like health care, public safety, operating machinery etc.

They will randomly test you and will test your hair. That takes 30-90 days to get out of your system. Furthermore, someone you work with will find out and justifiably report you.

Stick to music, art, or some creative endeavor.

Nobody will want to deal with you. You will have it on you. It will get ripped off, someone will rip you off, you will owe people money. People will come by where you work looking for you. You :censored::censored::censored::censored:ing smell!!!!!

Dude, go back to your mom's basement, video games and skateboards. You have no business working anywhere on or near and ambulance.

Once again, I think drugs should be legal but certain professions and endeavors should test for drugs and bar the users from participating.

I see no reason why Willie Nelson (in fact I WANT him to) can not toke up, but, not anyone working the street with me.

Make your choice now. Mind altering drugs or EMS. You absolutely can never ever have both.

I appreciate your passion, but do you have any idea how many healthcare workers take psychactive drugs for everything from ADHD to bipolar disorder?

 

[emt seeking first job]

I appreciate your passion, but do you have any idea how many healthcare workers take psychactive drugs for everything from ADHD to bipolar disorder?

Maybe in a hospital . But not in the field. Not where health care overlaps public safety.

EMS, Fire and Police all have psych screening.

 

[Veneficus]

Maybe in a hospital . But not in the field. Not where health care overlaps public safety.

EMS, Fire and Police all have psych screening.

Having been through it for fire and ems, I can confidently say if you have any brains and have not already snapped, you will probably get through the screen.

I can't speak for law enforcement, but some of the SWAT cops I have met are a few fries short of a happy meal so it couldn't be that hard.

It also doesn't take into account when people develop psych pathology after hire, like PTSD, depression, etc.

 

[emt seeking first job]

Having been through it for fire and ems, I can confidently say if you have any brains and have not already snapped, you will probably get through the screen.

I can't speak for law enforcement, but some of the SWAT cops I have met are a few fries short of a happy meal so it couldn't be that hard.

It also doesn't take into account when people develop psych pathology after hire, like PTSD, depression, etc.

No screening is perfect. Look up Justin Volpe. Look up Robert Hansen. Look up Kenneth Morena and Franklin Mata.

Look up EMT David Taranto. Beleive it or not he is still working.

There are enough :censored::censored::censored::censored:ed up people in public safety without adding marijuana users and their issues into the mix. Legal or not.

At my former LEO job, a guy there was twice arrested (by an outside agency) and twice NOT convicted for dealing. He is still there but the chief took away his gun. That guy unnerved me. There were always 'dudes' coming by to chat with him privately.

 

[94H]

It's unfortunate that marijuana testing is always done through urine. From what I understand, should you be pulled over and arrested for OUI of marijuana, you will have blood drawn and the the THC content in your blood will be measured. If you are not a chronic smoker and go to have your blood drawn a few days later, the THC levels will be back to "normal" as you are are no longer high. Meanwhile a pee test cannot differentiate whether you smoked yesterday or a month ago.

Say what you want about marijuana use, but it seems like testing for it is still in the dark ages. Or maybe I have all this wrong and the drug counselor I was having an offhanded conversation with may have just been making all the above up.

I know at my company the testing is done with mouth swabs, alot cheaper and sanitary then urine testing. Also, the mouth swabs will not come back positive unless you have smoked in the past 12 hours (If you are not a heavy user).

Not that I would risk it, every single nursing school application had a questions about being dismissed from employment due to a failed drug test.

 

[DesertMedic66]

Maybe in a hospital . But not in the field. Not where health care overlaps public safety.

EMS, Fire and Police all have psych screening.

Even in the field do you have providers who take medications to control psych issues. For my EMS service we had no psych screening.

 

[94H]

No it is not.

Everyone I know who drank heavily growing up is still sharp.

Everyone I know who did pot is now a space cadet.

Period.

Except our dear president

 

[emt seeking first job]

Even in the field do you have providers who take medications to control psych issues. For my EMS service we had no psych screening.

My service is all volly.

Not to say that there are not people with issues, but, we all had to have an MD sign a form that reads we are not under psych care for any mental health issues.

Privates in NYC used to hire anyone of the street who seemed "ok." Now they have screening.

At some point, especially since employers can cherry pick applicants. More and more will have that stipulation.

In NYC privates and hospitals are going to soon have agility testing.

EMS is a new 'thing.'

There was a time whne you could get an LEO position with a record....

 

[emt seeking first job]

Except our dear president

I would make an educated guess that he just experimented in college.

The people I speak of were the every day users for twenty five years.

Many my friends but for the last twenty years or so I will only meet them in a public place like a diner. I will never go to their homes nor do I invite them to mine.

 

[ffemt8978]

Maybe in a hospital . But not in the field. Not where health care overlaps public safety.

EMS, Fire and Police all have psych screening.

Not everywhere.

 

[emt seeking first job]

Not everywhere.

And when they do it is not perfect.

 

[Veneficus]

My service is all volly.

Not to say that there are not people with issues, but, we all had to have an MD sign a form that reads we are not under psych care for any mental health issues.....

That is easy enough to come by. You just go to an MD and when he asks if you have psych issues, say "no." It is not like anyone is going to call every psychiatrist in town and ask if it is true.

Even if they did call, the psych doc would probably decline to answer on confidentiality grounds.

I agree using THC is not a good idea, in EMS or at all, and I'd like to think I know a little bit about what it actually does, vs. what various advocates and detractors spew forth as factual.

But honestly, a lot of the employment testing in public safety is BS so the agency can say they had no idea, or in the case of "agility testing" in the fire service, to exclude women.

It is as pathetic as background checks. They don't screen people who haven't been caught yet.

A lot of wasted time, effort, and money.

 

[JPINFV]

Psych screening! = no mental illness.

Mental illness! = unable to function.

For the sake of fairness, I hope no one on your squad is struggling with, say, an addiction to nicotine. After all, addiction is a neuropsych issue. Psychiatric issues don't start with paranoid schizophrenia.

 

[JPINFV]

I know at my company the testing is done with mouth swabs, alot cheaper and sanitary then urine testing. Also, the mouth swabs will not come back positive unless you have smoked in the past 12 hours (If you are not a heavy user).

More sanitary? Try culturing a clean catch urine sample and a mouth swab and compare. Volume for volume, I'd rather be peed on than spat on because at least normal urine is sterile and is just modified and filtered plasma (more or less, but you get the point). Of course neither is a better option.

 

[JPINFV]

Except our dear president

Which ones?

 

[Veneficus]

Mental illness! = unable to function..

Not always, there are different levels of illness and different loss of functioning within them.

You can have hypomanic/depressed bipolar that is not treated.

Minor or even moderate depression

narcissistic or histrionic personality disorders...

I could go on, but I won't.

 

[94H]

More sanitary? Try culturing a clean catch urine sample and a mouth swab and compare. Volume for volume, I'd rather be peed on than spat on because at least normal urine is sterile and is just modified and filtered plasma (more or less, but you get the point). Of course neither is a better option.

Sanitary wasnt the right word, it was just the most appropriate I could come up with.

I was trying to saw it is better in my eyes to have a saturated swab on a stick then to have cup of urine on your desk