Drug test query
 

I see a lot of posts here about drug tests. I live in Australia, and they are uncommon unless you are an elite athlete. How often and what circumstances are you poor guys getting tested?

It's quite a bizarre notion to me..

some schools and workplaces have random drug testing.

some workplaces as part of the hiring process have drug testing.

Pilots, railroad engineers, truck-drivers, and some cab companies are doing it.
Any job with Haz-mat training has regular tests.
There are a lot of jobs that are requiring them just to get hired.
I think this is more an insurance deal then actually worrying about drug use.

Ive worked in US government and private sector and all of my jobs have "reserved the right" to drug test but none of them ever have. Ive got a new job with the State Department starting soon though so they will definately test me this time. No worries though. Im clean.

Random drug testing is illegal in California. The most they do is a test before they hire you and when they have justification for a subsequent test. Like you cause an accident. I don't know the rules in other states.

I think that in Australia, they're more worried about your being killed by a snake or a spider at home than they are about your dying of a drug overdose.

I've had a couple jobs where they drug test you before hiring, and then reserve the right to random drug tests, but have never had a random. And in the last few years at my current company they drug tested three employees, cause someone saw them driving into work smoking a blunt on the way.

Haha. Yes well, if you've ever been down here you would be too. There's a reason we check under our keyboards each day before work.

Thanks for the replies, it's quite interesting. I thought about turning this thread into a bit of a rant about how it's a huge breach of civil liberties but I couldn't be assed.

I would've threadjacked and talked about how it's a breach of my civil liberties to have to worry constantly that things will go wrong because someone is under the influence of an illegal substance.

Watch out for the gigantic ants down there.

I'd be more worried about the legal ones. I'm sure you've compared the statistics on alcohol vs. combined total of every other drug out there..