Alaska USCG Concerns Violations Maritime Law

[Group9]

I'm not sure how this is a surprise...

1) Marijuana was made legal and accessible. The Federal Government is really just behind the curve on this one. One can drink themselves into a stupor, but can't smoke. .

On many occasions, I have found people who have managed to smoke themselves into a stupor with marijuana.

The funniest time I eve saw it happen, was at BWI airport, where we found four individuals sitting on a bench, inside the terminal, who smelled so strongly of marijuana that you could smell them from across the terminal.

To this day, it was still the strongest marijuana odor I ever smelled. It almost made me sick to my stomach it was so strong on them and their clothing.

We interviewed them for fifteen minutes. No one could tells their name, why they were sitting in the terminal, or how they had got there. They just kept looking at us like they were brain damaged. (This was pre-synthetic/Spice marijuana days, or we would have suspected something like that).

That was around 1995 or so, and to this day, that was the worst I ever saw.

Second would be the guy who wrecked his car next to me one night. I was driving along on I-55 about two in the morning, the only car on the road on a three lane highway. A car overtook me, that had to been traveling well in excess of a 100 miles an hour and was about to ram into the rear of my truck. I braced for the impact, and the car swerved and ran off the road and down into a ditch. How he didn't flip over I don't know because it looked like he was on two for wheels for a second.

I stopped, and ran back to help him and found the same thing. A guy reeking of marijuana, sitting and almost catatonic in the car, with a bag of potato chips (not kidding) and watching a portable TV that was on in the front passenger seat facing the driver. With a bag of unsmoked marijuana joints next to it, and the car just stinking of weed.

Just to be clear, I don't care if people get high, if they don't do it somewhere where they hurt anyone else. But, for most addicts, they don't care.

And, the hardest thing in the world, is to get any drug user (just like with alcohol) to admit they are an addict.

But, yes, we have to figure out something. If there is one we have learned, the need to get high, often exceeds the need to go through life without being arrested or fired. And, that's powerful stuff.

I love chocolate like nobody in the world. But, if it was made illegal tomorrow, and I could be arrested, or lose everything, from eating it, I'd never touch another piece. It just wouldn't be worth it.

But, drug users, when faced with that same set of choices, usually say, "I'll take the chance. It's worth it to me."

I don't know how we fix that other than to just let them do it, and then clean the messes up afterwards the best we can. Because, you sure can't stop them.

 

[RonR]

This is how I see it, may be right, might not be.

If you receive any federal/state $$$. You should be drug free.
If you work in any health care facility. You should be drug free
If you work in any teaching facility that is public. You should be drug free
If you work in a high hazard job. You should be drug free

 

[rslifkin]

As far as I'm concerned, for the most part, show up sober, high performing and ready to work and I should have no reason to care what you do while you're not at work. It's when those activities start to hurt work performance that it's a problem.

The challenge is, there's no good way to test if someone is high right now (like there is for alcohol), only that they've had it in their system recently (even if it was last weekend). So for a safety critical job, there's no good way to handle the issue other than avoiding it entirely.

 

[SoWhat]

If you work in a high hazard job. You should be drug free

Agree. Wouldn't want the pilot on short final to start spacing out on altitude checks and start staring at the trees.

A real concern is ADA. You can't discriminate against anyone who has a medical prescription for weed in many states. If you are in a high risk occupation, running a chemical plant or working around high voltage or any job with federal or state mandated legitimate safety requirements, you need to be drug free.

As a business owner you could prohibit usage on-site but that's about all you can do. Happy trails.

 

[BandB]

Regarding cannabis use by retail or other workers: would you want your children to buy a blouse from a clerk that was high on pot? Or, would you want your elementary school son to eat fast food made or served by someone who smokes weed? Imagine what could happen!

Personally I feel that workers in those sorts of jobs should be as miserable as possible and I have zero tolerance for anything that stops the hours from dragging by......

Wifey B: Like Psneeld, I assume this was all tongue in cheek.

We own retail stores and don't want anyone working under the influence of any legal or illegal drug. We don't care what someone did last night before midnight or so as long as it doesn't impact their work the following day. I don't think regular weed use is healthy or good but I don't think regular alcohol use is and I don't think many other things are. Now, weed use is legal or illegal depending. I totally agree with rules and testing for certain jobs but not for being a retail clerk, not for working in a corporate office.

We try to educate young people into healthy habits. That includes weed, alcohol and sleep education. Number one performance issue is lack of sleep and lifestyle. We also educate on managing finances. We encourage healthy habits. We try to approach it all positively.

Pot is a part of our world today. To label everyone who uses it as a criminal or to assail their character is not, in my opinion, appropriate. I read some of the statements here and they come from very narrow minded thinking.

Now, I want to toss in another issue. Mental Illness. Some of these people being condemned suffer from it. Much of drug use is co-dependency and includes mental illness. We're doing a horrible job in our society of addressing mental illness. Much of drug use is self medication as is much of alcohol use. Let's put the emphasis toward addressing the real problems, not the symptoms.

4 years military, PTSD, uses pot. Help, don't attack.

20 year old suffers from chronic anxiety after a horrible childhood, smokes pot as it has fewer side effects than the xanax prescribed. Help, don't attack.

24 year old, bipolar. Finds themselves on the street, using heroin. Help, don't attack.

We don't need more attacking, more jailing, more casting aside of those in need, we need more compassion and help for those suffering from mental illness.