Profile For Jeb H.

I have news for you.... I know someone who swears she had 3 months clean and just failed a test for pot. The doctor office told her if she smoked daily and for years, she could test positive for 6 months or more. True? I don't know but she "researched so much and thought she was good". So don't be overly confident . Also, I know someone who went to 2 companies the same week... Failed one and passed the other. So tests can be stronger and more strict from place too place.

Personally I would put off school a whole semester. Good luck

UPDATE: It's now been 6 months since I quit and I can confirm that for a heavyset daily smoker with a slow metabolism it is indeed possible to test positive at 6 months. Last week I took 2 samples, one was the first collection of the day and the second was mid-day after I'd drank 64 oz of water. (My blood pressure meds dry me out and as a result I always drink a lot of water. I carry a 32 oz bottle wherever I go and by lunch time I'd drank 2 of them.) I got the results back from the lab today. My first sample tested positive at 27ng/dl (below the 50ng threshold for screening) and the second was undetectable. Thanks to the drivers that advised me to wait. I go for the DOT test on Monday and if all goes smoothly I'll start school in 3 weeks.

I just got home from the DMV after getting my permit and watched this. Most of it I already knew from lurking on these forums but the thing that is really giving me second thoughts is the dispatchers reactions to drivers needing to pull over and get some rest. How prevalent is that sort of attitude? I'd be turning over my keys and hopping a plane home immediately.

Yeah given my slow metabolism, body fat, and heavy use (10 years in the music business and having good pot is almost a job requirement) I have no doubt I'll be at the upper end of that range so I already planned on 3 months for a urine test but now that I understand the severity of a positive result I've decided to push that back to at least 6. I've already passed a couple of home tests but fully intend to get a lab to do urine and hair for me in the Spring before I start training. In the meantime I'm going to do a quick shave neck to toe and get a buzzcut. I'll give myself 6 more months to grow my hair back out then keep it around 2 inches. I'm going to step up my cardio routine and I'm going to a low-fat diet high-creatine diet as cannabis metabolites are stored in fat and if my creatanine levels are too low I'll end up with a dilute sample which I assume is just as bad as a positive. I'll look into a blood test as well. If blood and a 15ng urine test find no trace of THC I think I can assume any new hair growth from that date should be clean. I plan on driving for 25 years. I can wait another 6 months.

Seeing as I've already been accepted through WOIA and I can certainly pass a UA (if that's the test the college uses) would it be possible to go ahead and get school out of the way In January, get my CDL and then take a BS job (Uber or something) for 6 months or so to be absolutely certain I've cleared the one year threshold before applying for a trucking gig or would that be suspect from an employer's point of view?

I have read horror stories about waiting. It can leave you with a stale CDL, that is a CDL with no experience, many carriers want to see experience with the CDL. The CDL just opens the door to training, which in turn opens the door to becoming a driver.

That makes a lot of sense. Even if I knew for sure the school just did urine test and had a company picked out that also did urine, company policy could (or that law that's been kicking around since 2015) could change at any time. I guess the only way to be sure is to push it to next year. I just hope that doesn't forfeit my WOIA grant.

Seeing as I've already been accepted through WOIA and I can certainly pass a UA (if that's the test the college uses) would it be possible to go ahead and get school out of the way In January, get my CDL and then take a BS job (Uber or something) for 6 months or so to be absolutely certain I've cleared the one year threshold before applying for a trucking gig or would that be suspect from an employer's point of view?

I was thinking WOIA is the only way to get free training. Don't all the companies that train require repayment?

Urine, Hair, and fingernails? What's next, browser history? I once watched a Cheech and Chong movie on Netflix. Am I screwed?

Hi all,

I was a live sound engineer before covid laid waste to the industry. I was lucky to find a work-from-home gig that paid the bills these last couple years. Since I was stuck at home, bored, and a little antsy I ended up smoking pot regularly.

Last month during a conversation with a good buddy I decided I want to drive a truck. It'll be nice to get out and see the country after 2 years locked in the house. Obviously the first thing I had to do is quit smoking and that was no problem. The second thing to do is learn everything there is to know about the job including training and certification. For that I've spent the last 3 weeks immersing myself in forums like this one. Up until now I've found answers to all my questions in previous postings. Only recently did I look into the drug testing regime and I've read some absolutely heart-breaking stories of drivers, some of which seemed like top-notch candidates, that had their careers extinguished before they even began due to a failed test.

I don't want to take ANY chances of going down that road. Twenty years of driving at $50k/year amounts to a million-dollar opportunity and I'd be a fool to jeopardize that so I want to take every measure I can to not fall afoul of the law. To that end I've ordered a couple different brands of at-home test kits and intend to have my own lab urinalysis done before I go for the school's test.

I'm 35 days clean at this point and classes don't start until January so I should have no trouble passing a urine test but I'd be toast if asked to take a hair test. I'm going through a community college program and the information packet says I'll be required to pass a drug test shortly after registration at the end of December, but they didn't specify whether it is a urine or follicle test. All I know about the test is that it costs $500. So my first question is does anybody know definitively which method is used by community colleges and does it vary from school to school or state to state? For those of you who've gone the college route, what was your experience?

My second question is do the community colleges report a failed or refused drug test to any governmental or third-party agencies (such as HireRight) either as a requirement or voluntarily?

I've already decided when I finish school I won't be interviewing with any company that uses follicle testing initially. I'll be 120 days out by then but I've read quite a few accounts where employers have gone back 6 months or even a year and I'm not going to chance it until I'm at least a year clean. Also I'm very concerned about second-hand smoke as my entire family continues to smoke and I can't afford to move out right now. The companies that manufacture the tests say it's "very unlikely" that 2nd-hand smoke can cause you to fail and they point to the fact that there are no peer-reviewed scientific studies that say you can. Obviously there are no studies to back their contention either but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence throughout this and other trucking forums. I take the manufacturer's word with a grain of salt because if they were aware of 2nd-hand smoke causing false positives it would be in their financial interests to keep that under wraps.

This brings me to my third line of inquiry. Is there any legal requirement that a company tell you up-front what method of drug test they require? Can I even trust the word of the recruiter if I were to ask them or could they tell me one thing and then spring a follicle test on me, forcing me to take a chance or refuse and am I correct that if I were to refuse that would be on my DAC by the end of the day and in a gov database within the year?

I appreciate any insights you may have on these subjects.