Originally published at: Two months after New Jersey legalized weed, concern rises about cops smoking it | Boing Boing
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They’d probably be a lot cooler if they did smoke weed.
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They can drink off duty, I don’t see any reason they can’t get stoned off duty.
And I’ve never been sympathetic to the idea that an employer should even have the option of testing your bodily fluids to control what yo do on your own time, cops or no.
(Being impaired on duty is, of course, a different issue.)
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ACAB (all cops are baked)
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So if we stopped testing for something that is no longer legally relevant we wouldn’t know about it unless it was a problem; and that’s a problem? Am I missing something?
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I agree with you. They shouldn’t have the ability to police your downtime.
The problem is, if they suspect someone is stoned on duty, they have no way of proving it. The blood test will be positive whether the cop smoked 5 mins ago or 5 days ago. If they suspected a cop was drunk, a blood test will prove it.
Unlike a test for alcohol that reveals the quantity of alcohol in a person’s system, a drug test for THC gives only a positive/negative result. They need to evolve these tests so they can determine how much THC is in someone’s system. They also still need to determine how much THC equates to being intoxicated.
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Dude, your cops are already stoned. What, do you the think after you’ve trained them to lie about every single interaction with the public they’re going to be super duper honest when submitting a piss sample? What a sucker.
This just reminded me of the numerous times my buddies got busted for possession and were just charged with paraphernalia because their stash was “lost” by the PD. One friend had his dugout returned with his other personal effects because they didn’t know what it was. Simultaneously crooked and ignorant and half of them don’t know what the other half are up to.
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There are tests for delta-9 THC which actully measure the drug and not just the presence of antibodies. The problem is they require blood to be drawn, so any person who is impaired and wants to keep from being found out just has to procrastinate the actual blood drawing: deny the authorities permission to draw blood, get the union involved, run away, make them get a court order, do everything you can to delay that blood test until levels have retreated (i.e. you’re no longer stoned). The piss/hair tests are done because they’re cheap, quick, and the courts have ruled they’re “non-invasive” so they can be done without consent. Drawing blood from an officer will prove much more difficult, especially if they’re trying to hide something. While I don’t support general drug testing, the often reported paranoia, delusions, and diminishing of critical judgement skills does not seem a good match for someone authorised to carry leathal weapons and to use them at his/her discretion.
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It was treated as fact in my hometown that “cops have the best dope.”
And a friend’s sister, who was dating a cop, did always seem to have good weed.
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I don’t like the idea of employers saying what can and can’t be done when not on the job. That said, towns will still expect their off-duty cops to answer calls - especially in areas where there are not a lot of cops in neighboring towns.
Also, in NJ cops have been using DREs (drug recognition evaluators) for a long time to determine if someone is high. This is on hold right now (the judiciary is determining whether it is bad science or not), but if it was good enough for the general public, it should be good enough for cops.
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Never forget the police whose lives have been ruined by (calling 911 while high on) baked goods!
“Time is going by really really really slow. Please send rescue.”
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The only way to stop a bad cop with a joint is to throw that cop in the joint?
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I don’t think anyone should be randomly tested by an employer unless the test could indicate impairment on duty. As such, blood alcohol levels are useful. Similar tests for pot would require a massive amount of research to correlate blood concentration and impairment.
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Legalize weed and abolish cops. Then the issue resolved itself.
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Are they testing for steroids? And if they test positive, do they act on it? Because steroid use is rampant among cops and it’s far more of an impairment to their job.
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