Ah jeez, looks like it's time for another round of "things I probably shouldn't say on my blog if I ever want to get hired". Oh well. Let's dive right in.
If you look at how long drugs stay in your system, most are gone in a day or two at most. (If you're doing cocaine right before you're drug tested, you deserve to fail honestly.) The one exception is weed. Weed stays in your system for a looooooooong time. Like up to a fucking month. Are you kidding me? A fucking month.
Why you even want to bother testing for weed is beyond me. It's completely legal in a lot of places, for one thing. Second, if I want to smoke weed on my own time, it's none of my employer's business. Hell, if I wanna do lines of coke of a prostitute's ass in my own time, it's none of my employer's business.
Say I do a drug test, and test positive for weed. Or painkillers for that matter. I failed the drug test, I'm out of a job. Of course, there are valid, legal reasons to be taking weed or painkillers. Just because I have them in my system doesn't mean I'm a filthy druggie. They could very well be prescribed to me by my doctor. I'm sure a lot of people with chronic injuries get prescribed painkillers.
The only way to prove this though, is to show whoever gave me the test my medical records. Employers aren't normally allowed to look at my medical records when hiring, yet if I fail a drug test because of something I'm taking for medical reasons, it's either that or be out of a job.
Oh great, I tested positive for weed. A drug that I smoked on my own time. It's not affecting my performance. Hell, it's probably not even a crime nowadays. And yet I'm not allowed to, for fear of failing a drug test.
I'm not really interested in a job if there's gonna be drug tests. Not because I can't pass, but because they're total bullshit. I wouldn't let my family starve to avoid a drug test, obviously, but I hope to not be that desperate for work.