Social media was designed to help people connect, communicate and share information about their lives and careers. However, it is now also Workplace Drug Testing Lawsused by people who are looking for advice on ways to avoid testing positive for drugs and alcohol in workplace settings. As more employers use pre-employment and random drug testing, regular drug users have become more desperate to find ways to avoid testing positive. Employers can learn a lot from reading drug forums where users are trying to find advice from others as to how they can escape detection.
The wealth of information for employers and drug testing researchers on the forums is amazing. The social media sites were never intended to be an easy means of communication for drug users. However, the accessibility to a community of drug users was just too much for the drug community of substance abusers to ignore. As a result, Australian employers can take advantage of having access to “private conversations” they would not have otherwise.
Lessons Learned
Perusing the forums reveals that regular drug users are looking for advice on ways hide their drug use, as would be expected. Social media was not intended for such use, but it does serve as a window into the world of drug users. Much of the advice is intended to convince a potential employer that a drug user is “clean”, but the user fully intends on resuming drug use after employment. That is why employers must have drug policies and procedures in place that include random testing. Even if someone manages to evade detection during pre-employment testing, the random drug testing program will eventually uncover their activities.
A lot of the advice on these forums is incorrect. For example, one response said, “As far as the synthetic weed, you don’t have to worry about that showing up.” The forum poster was wrong, and workplace drug information programs can make that clear. Today, there are drug tests that detect synthetic cannabis, referred to as K2 or Spice. Another example of poor advice offered on a forum says, “Good quality coke doesn’t really have a comedown; maybe a bit moody the next day.” The truth is found on a different forum where someone describes the comedown as, “It’s a state where you can’t fall asleep, and you can’t stay awake. Sometimes it can make you feel mellow, “floaty”, and as if you don’t care about anything. Sometimes it can cause paranoia and make you miserable too.”
This type of information is good to know because the indications an employee is using drugs can vary to a large degree. There is no easy way to come off of a drug like cocaine. As a forum user tells readers, “It is the day after using coke, and I still can’t get myself to go to sleep.” A worker using cocaine the day before is often unable to sleep that night and then goes to work the next day still experiencing the effects of the drug and feeling exhausted from lack of sleep. The comedown effects include tension and anxiety, depression, mood swings, and exhaustion.1
Listening to the Street
The employer can also get a lot of valuable information about the most popular drugs, the new street terminology, and the tricks people are sharing with each other to avoid testing positive for drugs in the workplace. For example, the methods cannabis users are using to pass pre-employment drug tests include drinking lots of water, intense exercising to force sweating, stopping exercise a week before the test to lower the amount of THC metabolites in the urine, taking high doses of Niacin (dangerous), quitting drugs 30 to 45 days ahead of the test, drinking cranberry juice to cleanse toxins (not medically proven), and on and on. None of these suggestions are proven to work except for stopping drug use. However, regular cannabis users that stop using the drug in anticipation of a drug test will likely experience withdrawal symptoms that are described as “flu-like” and include irritation, anxiety, restlessness, and depression. That is not a good condition to be in for a job interview.2
Some of the suggestions made on social media for passing a drug test advise lying. For example, a man had used .1g of heroin two days earlier and each day during the prior week. He had to go for a drug test and was wondering how he could use the antibiotics he takes for sinus problems that developed due to regular drug abuse. The advice other people gave him was to, “Play dumb when tested positive (pretend shocked horror) and come back the next day with new found information that is proof the antibiotics led to testing positive for opiates. Then tell the employer to re-test you in a week and, in the meantime, stay clean.”
Employers are encouraged to browse the drug forums because they can learn many of the secrets of substance abusers. Reading the forums also confirms the importance of having strong drug and alcohol policies and of implementing a random drug testing program. The one thing that is made abundantly clear by the forums is that people are desperate to find ways to continue using their drugs, but they are desperate for employment too (I must pass the drug test and get the job). Employers must stay on top of what is happening outside the workplace to maintain a drug free environment on the inside, and social media is an excellent tool for doing so.
Mediscreen (http://mediscreen.net.au/) offers a range of drug and alcohol testing equipment for pre-employment and random drug testing programs. The quality tests are integral to maintaining a substance free workplace.
References
1 Cocaine Facts (2011) Australian Drug Foundation, Retrieved at http://www.druginfo.adf.org.au/drug-facts/cocaine.
2 Cannabis Factsheet (n.d.) NSW Government, Retrieved at http://www0.health.nsw.gov.au/factsheets/drugandalcohol/marijuana.html.