Need Advice About Marijuana Testing For CDL Drivers

Youre going to have to choose between your weed and your trucking job, but hey, macdonalds is always hiring.

No need to be rude. This kind of ignorance is why there is such an unjustified negative view of marijuana. (Insinuating that because I smoke weed I don't deserve any better than a minimum wage job).

It is not really unjustified. Allot of people like myself do not like the smell of it. Also, any thing that causes your body or brain to not function properly is not good. And about the McDonalds thing, in all honesty the jobs that are minimum wage don't care about the drug users. The jobs that pay good and you can live off of do care about it. So there is truth to that statement. I am also surprised how many people on here say that they are better off without it since they have stopped. I have had my friends that use it argue that is changes nothing about them. I am glad that the people on here are doing good and to you John I wish you the best of luck no matter what decision you make. I myself think you should stop smoking but either way I hope everything works out good for you.

I do need to defend marijuana and I hope you guys will give me a chance and read this post.

It's unjustified because other drugs in this country are ignorantly widely excepted and used daily like, caffeine, pharmaceutical pills, alcohol-and the list goes on.

You say marijuana causes your brain not to function correctly and I would disagree. It causes no brain damage and many people function daily while on it.

I do not smoke daily but I actually find I'm a bit sharper when I do smoke because it helps me see other perspectives and things like that-often making me realize my mistakes during things such as arguments with friends and family. Marijuana MAKES you think. Some people can't smoke because of that fact because thinking about reality and things like our mortality can be scary. Things like alcohol or personality altering drugs like zanax do the opposite-they numb you and surpress the thoughts.

Yes marijuana alters the chemicals in your brain. But so does every drug we all use. Every time you drink that coffee you're ingesting a brain/body altering drug-one in fact, that is worse for your body than marijuana.

Many of the people who say their life being changed for the better when they quit smoking are because of things like; 1) they started smoking way too early in their life 2)or they smoked so much and daily that it completly hindered them from living a normal life.

And for those people-I'm glad and congradulate you on your succes in defeating your bad habit.

But if you have balance with marijuana-like ALL things in this life-it's completly fine and harmless. Balance, my friends! It's key.

All this being said-you are completly correct. Wanting to smoke and watch my tv shows and play my games while risking my job and life line is completly irresponsible and stupid. I have a lot to consider.

P.S. It's not a safety concern when the only time I smoke is during home time.

P.P.S If you not liking the smell of it is your main reason to say it's bad? ...yikes. You must go around not liking a lot of stuff for such simple reasons.

My middle bro drives for UPS 32 years now, last 15 in big rigs. He told me of a driver who had a sweet dedicated route , pulling in over $3 grand a week net. He had got popped once before for weed smoking. They sent him to rehab; It's a 1 time only thing, they do............Well he got popped on a random and failed, lost his job, and that dedicated money maker! I forget how long he drove for UPS , but was a good long time...

P.S. It's not a safety concern when the only time I smoke is during home time.

John, I have to disagree with you on this. Cannabinoids attach to fatty cells (cannabinoids are oils, basically), and the brain has lots of those kinds of cells. It takes quite a while for your body's filters to get that out of your system. So while you may not notice the effects, their presence still us an effect on your reaction times and decision making.

Which reminds me of a joke:

Q. What's the difference between a drunk and a pothead?

A. A drunk blasts right through the stop sign - doesn't even notice it. A pothead stops and waits for it to turn green.

I'm surprised you don't know the answers to your questions if youve been smoking weed for a long time.

when i was in the union everyone a lot of guys were smoking weed on a daily basis. we got randomed all the time.

synthetic urine DOES WORK. it will not fail even at the lab. you just need to make sure it's the right temp.

on all my randoms i never had anyone watch me. the law states they can only watch IF you messed up and need a retest and it has to be through an Amber colored glass...

i don't know where everyone hides their synthetic... one guy said by his peanuts but... the hernia exam. what if its before you pee.

never figured out how they hid their synthetic but i can name on more than two hands union guys on federal jobs that are on drugs and used synthetic to pass. i know others that failed for temperature...

all of them perfectly capable of driving while stoned. but not drunk and not on crystal.

why don't u just stop till your retired or fight for its legalization and equivalent to testing like alcohol?

P.S. It's not a safety concern when the only time I smoke is during home time.

John, I have to disagree with you on this. Cannabinoids attach to fatty cells (cannabinoids are oils, basically), and the brain has lots of those kinds of cells. It takes quite a while for your body's filters to get that out of your system. So while you may not notice the effects, their presence still us an effect on your reaction times and decision making.

Which reminds me of a joke:

Q. What's the difference between a drunk and a pothead?

A. A drunk blasts right through the stop sign - doesn't even notice it. A pothead stops and waits for it to turn green.

Yeah, me nor any smoker I know has ever had any problems like that after stoping smoking.

A red flag for me is you saying my decision process is negatively effected for days or weeks afterwards-my decision process isn't negatively effect while I'm high to begin with. Like I said before weed makes you think. Thinking and sometimes getting paranoid actually leads to thinking things through and being prepared for things.

Alcohol is what leads to feelings invincible and then doing stupid stuff.

The biggest thing that makes it hard to understand is people who've only smoked a handful of times or they've seen people acting crazy cause they have only started smoking recently.

In the beginning it really is like a party drug. It's kinda like alcohol where you kinda go crazy and just wanna have a blast and maybe do some questionable things. Once you get past that rookie stage-it changes-it becomes a tool!

You can use it for creativity, or to have better empathy and understanding of something or to help you sleep. You can use it to legitamly help you achieve stuff and get work done. Or you can just use it to help you feel like a kid again and enjoy watching tv shows like you did when you were a kid. It depends on the person obviously.

And to jump on it before you say it. Me risking my job for weed is a dumb decision. One I might make all on my own. Not a dumb decision id make because I smoke.

But that was my whole point of coming on here. To either have experienced guys tell me it's easy and "here's how" or to confirm my fears that it isn't easy and I should just stop. Which is the answer I got so I got some thinking to do.

I'm surprised you don't know the answers to your questions if youve been smoking weed for a long time.

when i was in the union everyone a lot of guys were smoking weed on a daily basis. we got randomed all the time.

synthetic urine DOES WORK. it will not fail even at the lab. you just need to make sure it's the right temp.

on all my randoms i never had anyone watch me. the law states they can only watch IF you messed up and need a retest and it has to be through an Amber colored glass...

i don't know where everyone hides their synthetic... one guy said by his peanuts but... the hernia exam. what if its before you pee.

never figured out how they hid their synthetic but i can name on more than two hands union guys on federal jobs that are on drugs and used synthetic to pass. i know others that failed for temperature...

all of them perfectly capable of driving while stoned. but not drunk and not on crystal.

why don't u just stop till your retired or fight for its legalization and equivalent to testing like alcohol?

Stop til I retire?! You crazy?! Haha :)

Even assuming I beat the odds and live to retirement age-lifes STILL too short to not live how you want to live. And i probably won't reach that age. Mr pessimistic I know but I have my reasons.

P.S. It's not a safety concern when the only time I smoke is during home time.

John, I have to disagree with you on this. Cannabinoids attach to fatty cells (cannabinoids are oils, basically), and the brain has lots of those kinds of cells. It takes quite a while for your body's filters to get that out of your system. So while you may not notice the effects, their presence still us an effect on your reaction times and decision making.

Which reminds me of a joke:

Q. What's the difference between a drunk and a pothead?

A. A drunk blasts right through the stop sign - doesn't even notice it. A pothead stops and waits for it to turn green.

Yeah, me nor any smoker I know has ever had any problems like that after stoping smoking.

A red flag for me is you saying my decision process is negatively effected for days or weeks afterwards-my decision process isn't negatively effect while I'm high to begin with. Like I said before weed makes you think. Thinking and sometimes getting paranoid actually leads to thinking things through and being prepared for things.

Alcohol is what leads to feelings invincible and then doing stupid stuff.

The biggest thing that makes it hard to understand is people who've only smoked a handful of times or they've seen people acting crazy cause they have only started smoking recently.

In the beginning it really is like a party drug. It's kinda like alcohol where you kinda go crazy and just wanna have a blast and maybe do some questionable things. Once you get past that rookie stage-it changes-it becomes a tool!

You can use it for creativity, or to have better empathy and understanding of something or to help you sleep. You can use it to legitamly help you achieve stuff and get work done. Or you can just use it to help you feel like a kid again and enjoy watching tv shows like you did when you were a kid. It depends on the person obviously.

I smoked a lot of weed for a lot of years, two different stretches, not a handful of times. And I have people close to me who have smoked nearly every day for 40 years. I have personally noticed a big change in my decision making process after I stopped both times. I also see the long term effects on decision making of those near me. It's not entirely harmless.

And comparing it to alcohol isn't valid either. Everyone knows driving drunk is foolish, especially a big rig. No one I know of argues that it should be legal or that testing for it shouldn't be done.

Like it or not, the same is true for pot. The fact that marijuana use is detectable for a lot longer than alcohol may seem unfair, but it actually makes my point for me - it stays in your system a lot longer.

I get the whole argument that it has benefits. But driving and pot smoking just don't mix. I've read the NORML summary of the studies that have been done - not exactly an unbiased source, but none of them are on either side of the argument - and even though they spin it in favor of weed, they concede that driving high brings some level of impairment.

Is drinking alcohol worse than smoking pot? That isn't the question you asked.

And about the McDonalds thing, in all honesty the jobs that are minimum wage don't care about the drug users. The jobs that pay good and you can live off of do care about it.

There are many, many jobs that pay incredibly well that do not care about any drug use, weed or otherwise. Unless you were specifically referring to driving jobs. I have quite a few friends in non-driving careers who make well over 100k a year and smoke every single day who are never drug tested and experience no negative consequences whatsoever.