Skip navigation

 Login or Register | Member Centre

Just say no to the stoner in the cubicle next door

PATRICK WHITE

From Monday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 10:55 AM EDT 22/10/07

A warning to B.C. Ferries to stop pot smoking among crew members has lit up the issue of who's getting high in the workplace ...Read the full article

This conversation is closed

  1. Alberto Bayo from Canada writes: Where I work, most people are much happier after lunch-break, and they're all chewing gum or have put on some nice cologne.
  2. Brad F from Canada writes: Growing up working landscaping/manual labour jobs I saw it all the time. Every single landscaping company I worked for (3) there was daily marijuana use...
  3. John Silverman from Canada writes: Although I definitely support de-criminalizing marijuana and I think our current drugs laws against it are out-dated and non-sensical, in general I'm not a big supporter of smoking while on the job. I smoke sometimes, but never at work. It wouldn't even occur to me to do so.

    However in some jobs I could see it. I've had friends in landscaping and other positions where if anything you'd do a better job after smoking, or at least, it certainly wouldn't hurt and does help break-up the day. So in that type of work I don't see it as an issue. But I agree if there is public safety involved you shouldn't be doing it - just wait until your shift is over and then go nuts for all (or anyone else should) care.
  4. Megan Platts from Hamilton, Canada writes: Reminds me of the wisest words spoken on TV, by Ricky on the Trailer Park boys:

    Randy: I can't get stoned, Ricky.
    Ricky: What do you mean? It's s***y work. Everybody does that, all right? Carpenters, electricians, dishwashers, floor cleaners, lawyers, doctors, f***in' politicians, CBC employees, principals, people who paint the lines on the f**in' roads, get stoned, it'll be fun, get to work!
  5. B to the A to the R to the T from the left coasta better world is possible., Canada writes: There is no excuse for being intoxicated on the job. But what is wrong with using pot in a responible way, say after dinner or at a party. Every weekend millions of Canadians use alcohol and thousands use pot responsibly and without harm to self and others. Yet the later, for stupid, unjustified, reasons risk life altering sanctions if they are caught. Marijuana criminalization takes valueable resources from the war on truly harmful and addictive drugs and reduces drug law credibility. It's time as a society we demand fact not fear based gov't policy.
  6. Ice Rider from Canada writes: I don't believe in smoking on the job either, but . . . Cracking down on pot in the Alberta oilpatch has led to the rise of crystal meth and crack cocaine use. Pot stays in the system for five or six weeks, while the chemical nasties metabolize in a day or two. If your company has fallen victim to the futile and cynical War on Drugs (40 years and no victories later), and you're bored to death living in a camp in the northern Alberta bush, the drug of choice is not pot (get high, watch TV, eat chips, go to sleep). It's meth or crack (get high, get paranoid, get mean, get aggressive). Just ask George Bush. His drug of choice was cocaine and look how he turned out.
  7. Doug from BC from Canada writes: Says a lot for your life when they only way you can enjoy it is to get drunk or stoned out of your tree. Alcohol is no better than drugs, it has destroyed the lives of many good people and families. These other drugs have done the same. Personally, I have no desire to work with people or travel on any conveyance where the workers are drunk or stoned. If you want to drink or get stoned at least have the smarts to do it where it only affects you.
  8. Serge Connors from Canada writes: Marijuana use is just a crutch for people who can't face their bleak, empty lives. We need to de-criminalize, regulate, and tax.
  9. GuineaPig Zed from Moorpark, United States writes: Don't ask, don't tell. Mechanic for thirty years, no one lost! ( retired at 45. )
  10. No No No Yes No from Canada writes: I wonder if prohibition discussion boards in the thirties would have looked like this?
  11. N. American from New York, United States writes: Thankfully someone puts it into perspective...

    'Marijuana use is just a crutch for people who can't face their bleak, empty lives. We need to de-criminalize, regulate, and tax.'

    I would suggest that if you feel the need to get stoned at work, you should really start looking for another job. As an employer, if I found someone to be stoned at work, I'd toss 'em just as fast as I'd toss someone who showed up drunk.
  12. R Hopkins from Edmonton, Canada writes: Tax the hell out of pot, we can't stop it, so let the government (the people) make some money instead of the dealers.
  13. The Bubble from Toronto, Canada writes: People should be able to get through the work day without it, if not, get another job.
    Students should be able to get to school without being stoned however much school sucks.
    It's the abuse of pot that hurts the people who like it once in a while.
    The extremes of both ends of the debate is what is keeping the issue from being resolved.
    Potheads, get your act together, straightos, you will never understand.
  14. Cindy Lawson from Toronto, Canada writes: I simply adore how people apply THEIR own lifestyle preferences to others by trying to call upon science to support their choices.

    The researcher who was paid MOST by the US government to 'find out' anything and everything 'negative' that he could about marijuana recently retired. His recently puclished autopbiography contains the information that NOT A SINGLE ANTI-MARIJUANA 'FACT' that has been 'published' over the last 40 years is actually true. He concludes that there is NOTHING to indicate that marijuana has ANY negative effects. Indeed, marijuana may stymie, slow or halt the development of myriad cancers as well.

    I know people - senior executives of major corporations - who have been smoking daily for decades.
  15. Rollo Tomasi from Belgium writes: I can't believe the Trailer Park boys missed Taxi drivers. And Railroad running trades.
  16. D. Grant W from Saskatoon, Canada writes: Actually, people who are depressed also have lower quality and quantity of work output. Maybe we should outlaw depression too.
  17. grover station from Hamilton, Canada writes: Smoking dope is fun on occasion, but what part of reality are you trying to avoid when you have to smoke dope every day? Reality is actually pretty cool.
  18. The Bubble from Canada writes: Railroaders should have drug tests, the number of accidents on Canada's rail system would support this. You will probably find more alcoholics though.
  19. CD W from coldwater, Canada writes: It you want to smoke dope then where a sign around your neck, then the rest of us can back to work and you hang out on welfare, or trust fund. Just let us get about the business of man and the nation.
  20. Cindy Lawson from Toronto, Canada writes: CD W:

    How very 'white' of you, chap. I hate to disappoint, but your manager or CEO may well be among those whom you dismiss so ignorantly. Methinks you know ZIP about the issue...
  21. The Bubble from Toronto, Canada writes: CD W obviously how much dope you smoke or not has no bearing on spelling and grammar.
  22. Dick Nails from Desoronto, Canada writes: Funny thing is that stoners would look at juice heads with derision. Stoned is stoned. Pathetic that you have to get stoned to enjoy life. Being stoned and its after effects are the anethema of life.
  23. Dick Nails from Desoronto, Canada writes: N. American from New York, United States writes:
    I would suggest that if you feel the need to get stoned at work, you should really start looking for another job. As an employer, if I found someone to be stoned at work, I'd toss 'em just as fast as I'd toss someone who showed up drunk.

    >> You have to be kidding? Unless the stoner killed somebody on the job, you can't fire them. Remember, human rights trump public safety, they are victims too, they are not at fualt/reponsible, who are you to judge, what they do on their time is their own business.... you couldn't fire some one just because they showed up stoned every day. They would get counselling (ha, what a joke that is) and instruction on life style management (more laffs) and you, as the employer, would pay for this. The stoner is your problem and yours alone. The poor dear is not reponsible.
  24. Dick Nails from Desoronto, Canada writes: Stoners seem to think they have the 'moral' high ground over juice heads. You don't, your both stoned. I look forward to when on the spot drug testing can be done, the same as with alcohol. That will get a few stoners off the road and else where that public safety is an issue. Your 'right' to be stoned and endanger me does not trump the public good to safety.
  25. F H from Canada writes: They put it well when they said no intoxicants should be used when public safety is an issue.

    Which means that musicians, artists and others are fine to do so as the only person they're affecting is themselves. Unless of course their use is making them a worse artist which in the case of being in a band, is an issue. That being said, in my various bands over the years, I've had WAY more musicians mess up because of alcohol than of anything else.

    No way you can smoke up in an office job. People complain about the smell of cigarette smoke on a person in a cubicle next to them. It would be impossible to mask the weed scent.

    I wish they would develop a way to test RECENT weed levels in workers that go through drug testing. It's completely unfair that someone who had a joint over the weekend would test positive on a Wednesday, yet the guy who went on a bender the night before will show nothing.
  26. A T from Canada writes: Dick wrote: 'Stoned is stoned. '

    Great argument skills you got there Dick!
  27. Fool Monty from Vancouver, Canada writes: Pot is not the problem; certain people who use pot can be a problem. Same as alcohol; same as life itself. There is appropriate inebriation and inappropriate inebriation. It's simple really.
  28. Alf Fartigan from Canada writes: There's only one reason that I can think of that would make me have to smoke weed every day, all day, 7 days a week, at work, and after work. The reason, you ask?

    Having to reside in Deseronto.

    'Nuff said ...... Dick.
  29. B to the A to the R to the T from a better world is possible., Canada writes: Dick Nails -= I too look for ward to the day that on the spot tests can determine you have a beer... 3 weeks ago. WHAT?!? You sobered up in three weeks, you say. It's in your system, gimme yer keys
  30. Bob Seven from Edmonton, Canada writes: as a daily pot smoker for almost 20 years, most would be hard pressed to even know that I smoke pot. I am clean cut, wear a suit everyday and meet with my clients everyday. Mind you, I don't smoke before I have to work or meet with my clients. I prefer to 'enjoy' my pot 'after hours'. Just like the couple that drinks a bottle of wine with dinner, or having a couple of cocktails after a hard days work. I keep it to myself and I hurt no one, including my employer. I do, however, know of lots of professionals who smoke pot regularly during the day and during work. Funny thing is that you would never guess who they are and that they are stoned. What you don't know won't hurt you.
  31. Bake McBride from Vancouver, Canada writes: Dr. Coambs is wrong & for someone who's supposed to be an authority on the subject, rather ignorant for believing people perform worse & make mistakes during routine work, including office duties while under the influence. How ludicrous a statement, but I'm sure he thinks he's always right because of his position in society.
  32. Michel Frechette from Kapuskasing, writes: Something tells me we should be looking at cannabis as a source of more than marijuana. I am not sure but I think we could use it to make ethanol or as a source of fibre to make clothing or paper. Maybe even synthetic oil or medicine.
  33. Bill McWilliams from Montreal, Canada writes: DO NOT LEGALISE POT.

    I smoke it and do not want the government controlling what I smoke. I pay enough taxes as it is so no taxes on drugs either. Been smoking for 30 years now and have smoked hundreds of times on the job and NO ONE notices it, not even the bosses who keep saying they would know if someone were stoned on their property. HAHA HA, sure you would.

    I don't mind paying what I pay for it either, it's always top notch weed. Ask anyone recieving marijuana from the government and they'll tell you it sucks and most go back to their local pushers.

    STAY OUT OF THE CANABIS TRADE GOV. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.

    Marc Emery should be put in jail, not for smoking it but for advocating legalisation. This pothead isn't thinking of the consequences of letting kids know it's legal. How many alcoholics do you know? I know many. Do you think it would be different for pot? Nope.
  34. Shallows Of Game. from Gomorrah, On., writes: 'Just ask George Bush. His drug of choice was cocaine and look how he turned out. '

    > my favourite so far.
  35. Angry West Coast Canuck from Canada writes: All drugs should be banned, all at once. No pot. No crack. No meth. No cocaine. Especially not the really dangerous drugs: no caffeine. No alcohol. No paracetamol. No aspirin. No drugs. Anywhere.

    Then, when the population has revolted and killed off or exiled the idiots who came up with the prohibition campaign, we can return to a more sane lifestyle.

    One where drug addiction is a mental and physical health issue, not a criminal issue. Where people who need help get the right help, not a baton in the ribs or tasered by over-equipped and poorly trained police forces.
  36. Shallows Of Game. from Gomorrah, On., writes: I didn't see this written anywhere upthread, therefore: 'Thank You for Pot Smoking.
  37. Robert Clipperton from North Battleford, Canada writes: When I was a math teacher I believed I could pick out the heavy dope smokers by the types of errors they made. I concluded that on the whole, dope smokers can't master fractions. Too many steps to keep in mind at the same time maybe? I don't know why white collar workers wouldn't have reduced performance on tasks requiring accuracy and sustained attention if they are chronic users. Of course people seem to have different tolerance levels and some people may manage to function normally while smoking up daily. On the other hand there may be others whose performance is affected with less heavy consumption. As for those who come back from lunch hour wearing a new heavy dash of cologne... I would question what they are trying to cover up.
  38. Lawrence Roy from Canada writes: Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle drugs
  39. David Gibson from Hamilton, Canada writes: The idea of someone all ripped up, operating a 20-ton piece of forestry equipment.......
  40. Nathan Weatherdon from Canada writes: 'Even a small amount of pot will impair motor skills and brain function, said Robert Coambs, head of consulting firm Health Promotion Research.
    'It would be fair to say that ubiquitous cannabis use will lead to an increase of accidents and other dangerous problems wherever you work.'
    'If you're stoned, your output will drop and the quality of your work will drop,' ...

    Actually, when working in Australia I smoked a joint or two through the course of most days on the farm, and found that my productivity in repititious mundane tasks requiring both dexterity and endurance was about 50% higher when a bit high. That translated into about an extra $60-80 in my pocket each day, since I was getting paid based on how much I got done.

    Then again, when multitasking comes into the question, I don't think you will see positive results.

    I challenge Mr Coambs to publish a comprehensive explanation of his methodologies. I think we`d find that a repeat would get different results or we`d find some serious flaws in the design of his study. I won`t hold my breath...

    Robert, I have to admit, I have found it easier to learn math after smoking pot, but easier to DO math when not stoned. Then again, I haven`t had to learn math in quite a while.
  41. Alberto Bayo from Canada writes: I posted about this yesterday, but now I forget what my opinion was.
  42. Larry Robinson from white Rock, Canada writes: All for it.

    We're talking people being happy with mindless jobs, blissfully never questioning a thing because they got booze, tobacco, mj and gambling to absorb their money and energy.

    Throw in double doctoring, claiming depression and stress for some tranks and habitual blogging gives us .... very few people running the show and controlling everybody.

    A group of controllers and a lot of organ donors ..... oooooooooooohhhhh
  43. Lord Jim from United States writes: I think Dick Nails might be stoned.
  44. B Ramsey from Canada writes: Robert Clipperton from North Battleford, Canada writes: When I was a math teacher I believed I could pick out the heavy dope smokers by the types of errors they made.

    Robert - that's a sweeping generalization. I hear every 5 outta 4 people have trouble with fractions!
  45. Anti Fascist from Canada writes: This is a witch hunt to deflect criticism of David Hahn's management of the Ferry Corp and Gordoccio's choice of manger for the same Corp.
  46. C Sandi from Sonoma, Ca., United States writes: I am assuming that all these advocates would just as soon fly in bad weather with a pilot who had just lit up before the flight because he was nervous.
    Pot stays in your fat cells, this is why someone after treatment can still pop a test due too their getting back in shape by working out and/or running etc.
    Industries which put the public at risk should have random testing, period.
    It bothers me that no drug or alcohol testing was done on the crew at the BC Ferry accident by the RCMP. Were they afraid of what they would find or did corporate cover it up?
    I, for one will not travel on Canadian ferries until they inaugurate a system of education, prevention and testing on employees who are in safety sensitive occupations.
  47. Alfred Thein from Toronto, Canada writes: And to Robert Clipperton.

    My math teacher and my english teacher would regularly make fun of how high I was. They would also stop trying to catch me in making a mistake, because i made none.

    I am not trying to sound aggrogant or be Wile E. Coyote Super Genius, but my point is, human brain > dope/alcohol, if the human brain in question is self aware as can be and has some discipline.

    Yes, to answer your questions. You can still be mentally discliplined enough to make a zen monk jealous and still get high.
  48. Alfred Thein from Toronto, Canada writes: 1 more thing to angry west coast canuck..

    its not tasered.. its tasered to death. Remember Police and RCMP :) if they are still breathing after the first 10 or so zaps and their eyes havent yet exploded, zap em again. They maybe under 'excited delerium' and if you dont kill them, may turn into the Hulk and lay waste to the city.
  49. Alfred Thein from Toronto, Canada writes: aww my big comment about how its not pot just the world sucking got deleted. :(
  50. Dan Shortt from Toronto, Canada writes: A quote from the article: 'Even a small amount of pot will impair motor skills and brain function, said Robert Coambs, head of consulting firm Health Promotion Research.'

    This is incorrect. Reliable and valid scientific research has shown that smoking a small amount of pot can actually improve motor skill functioning.

    And CD W says that maybe pot users should just wear a sign around their necks. Indeed, CD.

    But CD's comment brings out an important point. The truth is that with experienced pot-smokers, it is virtually impossible for other people to identify them as being 'high.' They can look 'normal,' act normal, talk normal, evern after just having a toke. The only tell-tale signs might be a lingering odour, or some reddish eyes.

    Most people have probably dealt with someone high on pot during the course of their normal daily life, and didn't even know it.

    All of which goes to show just how dangerous marijuana really is.

  51. Pablo W from Mid Ontario, Canada writes: Getting high on the job is a problem ? What about the people who pop 3 ac&c and work ? Worked with a lady who was on perscription drugs, she was slower (in more ways than one) than the guy who was high all the time, he would smoke regularly. I knew that he did but the other employees didn't seem to know. Hard to fire the company owner for it. He did take care of his workers and would help them in any way he could (gave a coworker who was a single mother a week off to look after her sick son paid for another to go to see his sick father) and was always willing to help other. I would still work for him but I moved.
  52. AC 418 from Winnipeg, Canada writes: When I worked at a slaughterhouse, 1/2 the employees were dead drunk, the other half were stoned - on pot, mushrooms, lsd, cocaine - you name it. The stoners did all of the work, while the drunks stood there drooling. Literally.

    Later on in college, a buddy of mine made his rent payments by selling good quality pot. I met more judges, lawyers, doctors, accountants, cops, bankers ....... all of whom smoked, all of whom couldn't admit it. Think of it, you knowingly break the law daily due to a personal choice and objection, but to register your political discontent would mean destroying your career, reputation, employability et cetera. You can see the hypocrisy related to a plant which grows almost anywhere and synthesized or processed materials, but can't say a word.

    So to all the "pot is bad" people - everything is bad without moderation. But you can't judge the real attitude of the population due to the economic ramifications on an individual level. In other words, do you think a judge or MP is going to be at a pro-pot rally, even if they do toke?
  53. andrea Olmanson from United States writes: Regardless of what one's opinion is on legalization or decriminalization, if an employer is paying an employee for that employee's time, the employee has a moral obligation, if nothing else, to give the employer the work/time paid for. Getting stoned on the job and hence being less productive is not that different from a moral standpoint than is theft.
  54. ELM now from toronto, Canada writes: I worked with a lady that would come in stoned. It would have been easier to pretend I didn't know if she hadn't offered it. While high, she would make frequent mistakes and slow things down. She didn't understand why she kept being passed over for promotion. Stop coming to work high.

Comments are closed

Thanks for your interest in commenting on this article, however we are no longer accepting submissions. If you would like, you may send a letter to the editor.

Report an abusive comment to our editorial staff

close

Alert us about this comment

Please let us know if this reader’s comment breaks the editor's rules and is obscene, abusive, threatening, unlawful, harassing, defamatory, profane or racially offensive by selecting the appropriate option to describe the problem.

Do not use this to complain about comments that don’t break the rules, for example those comments that you disagree with or contain spelling errors or multiple postings.

Back to top