Marijuana, under the scanner

‘Mary Jane’ is one of the many street names for marijuana, which is by far the most commonly abused illicit drug in the world. Grass and hashish have been in the society since the early 16^th century. The introduction of jazz music caused in increase in the number of pot smokers. In the present era, the association of the word ‘cool’ with pot smokers, Rastafarians and hippies has prompted kids to smoke joints on a daily basis. It should be noted that marijuana may not be addictive but is definitely a stepping-stone to higher drugs like cocaine and heroin.

The Climb up the Ladder from Marijuana to Something Stronger

There is a hike in office employees who smoke joints during office hours or come to the office stoned. Marijuana might give you a high the first few times you smoke it but within a few months your tolerance increases and you stop getting those kicks you got the first few times and hence you start the search for something stronger. You keep smoking more joints per day until you are introduced to acid or heroin or cocaine or meth.

Once you’ve found that stronger drug, you would start getting heavier ‘kicks’ again but then again these kicks would be short lived and your tolerance to a drug like cocaine would increase as well and thus you’re stuck in a cycle where you simply administer more drugs in your body in the search for that same old buzz. When the drug in use is cocaine or heroin, you are at a great danger of losing your job, your loved ones and even your life.

Concern among Employers

The drug problem has touched big offices and various firms and employers are struggling to keep their offices safe and clean. Therefore, plenty of firms have created drug and alcohol testing policies as per the OHS (Occupational Health and Safety) system. These policies help the owners to run drug screening tests on a monthly basis. These tests help in understanding the loopholes in the company and help in finding out the reasons for low productivity of a particular department.

If an employee were found guilty of using drugs in excess, he would get proper help from his company. He might have to spend some time off work in a rehab centre or he might have to go through a short detox program in order to be fit for duty again. Detox programs and rehab plans help the addicts to break their habit and resume normal lives. The period in question depends on the nature of the drug and the duration of the habit.

What Doesn’t Kill You…?

If a person has been smoking joints on a daily basis for a whole year, he would not be spending a lot of time at a rehab or he might not even have to visit a rehab centre because marijuana not that strong a drug in nature. However if a person has been a cokehead for 6-8 months, he would have to go through a few weeks of rehab. The withdrawal symptoms would be more intense and he would have to struggle hard to keep his craving down but with medical help at a rehab centre, his addiction can end. The treatment process can extend more than a few months but once completed, can provide the ex-addict with a better and sober life.

How Fitness for Duty Policies are defined

Fitness for Duty as defined by major safety oriented organizations is the ability of an individual to perform a task completely, safely and effectively. This particular definition has been a major consideration to several organizations—both big and small—particularly to those which operate in ‘high risk’ environments such as the aviation, mining, transport and construction industries.

All organisations, which fall under these categories, strive hard to provide a work place that is safe, drug-free and efficient so that the employees can carry out their assigned tasks safely, completely and efficiently. To bring this statement to reality, there have to be policies (called Fitness for Duty policies) in place that stand as guidelines to both the employers and the employees in achieving the motto.

How Fitness for Duty policies is defined?

Fitness for Duty policies are usually defined by:

• Analysing the potential threats and to the extent those threats can affect the organization
• Listing of the various prohibited substances that contribute to those potential threats
• Implementation of various Alcohol Drug Testing procedures to identify the existence of these prohibited substances inside the individual system.
• Strategies to carry out the retention/exit procedures for an individual in case the tests show positive results.

Factors responsible for framing Fitness for Duty policies

There might be several fitness factors that degrade the performance and productivity of an employee impacting the company in the long run. And these factors might be different for different working environments. But there are three major factors that are common across all the working environments despite their nature of work. If proper Workplace Drug Testing Laws are put in place, controlling the mishaps at the work place can be as easy as grabbing a cheese.

What are those three major common factors?

Fatigue, Drugs and Alcohol are the three major common factors affecting the overall performance and productivity of an employee and these factors are common across all the working environments—be it mining, be it aviation, be it construction or be it even the transport environments.

How Fatigue?

Fatigue revolves round the concept of ‘lack of sleep’. Lack of sleep for an individual in an organization is generally caused due to excess working hours and the need to put extra effort in order to meet the stringent deadlines.

How Drugs?

Drug can be of two types—prescribed and non-prescribed. Excess intake of drugs can cause instability in the mind and slowly paralyzes the ability to take right decisions at the right time. The non-prescribed drugs can include marijuana, cocaine, black sugar and others that addicts an individual. Prescribed drugs too, unlike how they sound, when taken in excess can cause instability in the employee’s mind.

How Alcohol?

According to a research, 28 per cent of all the drivers who were killed in road accidents in 1997 died because of excess alcohol consumption. Similarly, alcohol in a workplace slows down the performance of the employee resulting in poor work quality, increased absenteeism and at times creates fights among the peers.

Employees under the influence of these factors may be unsafe both for themselves and for the organization. Proper policies to locate and reduce these hazards can ensure a secure ambience to those ‘safety oriented’ environments.