Professional people on drugs.

[RedneckStumpy]

Over the last month DH has been clearing up incidents at work. All of which have been having to sack people who have caused an incident at work due to drugs.

Druggy 1: Rolled a company vehicle, he was injecting heroin while driving and passed out.

Druggy 2: Sold company phone, laptop then used company credit card to hawk fuel to feed he coke habit.

Guy 3: While being security checked by the nuclear power station, was told to leave and was escorted to the plants property boundary buy armed police.

DH gets drug tested regularly, everyone who works at the company is security cleared. How do these people slip through the net?

Is drug taking becoming more mainstream?

Yes, I think drug use is becoming far more mainstream.

My dad is a builder and he says that at lunchtime, loads of people on site sit around smoking weed as they'd have once smoked cigarettes.

You get the waft of weed very regularly from cars, from people just walking down the street etc.

A huge number of people I know take cocaine on nights out because it's a better buzz, lasts longer and is cheaper than booze. I'm actually probably the only one who doesn't.

I know a couple of people who take heroin recreationally.

I know lots of gay men into ChemSex.

Addiction doesn’t discriminate. Being a professional or middle class or wealthy doesn’t mean you’re immune, nobody is.

That’s not to say we have any way of knowing these individuals are all experiencing substance use disorder, but if they’re using despite being in jobs that would lead to grave consequences if they got caught it’s pretty fair to say they’re probably not casual users who don’t have a problem (as it’s unlikely the very first time would lead to getting found out: chances are they’ve got away with doing their jobs under the influence several times before something awful finally happening).

Should say, all these people I'm talking about that I know are all respectable, professional people.

Where do you live op??

Here’s some more concrete figures if you’re interested OP, four years out of date but much of it still applicable:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/05/-sp-drug-use-is-rising-in-the-uk-but-were-not-addicted

In contrast to the stereotype of the drug user, many active drug takers are in the higher echelons of society, with 40% being in social grades AB.

I think it’s partially that drugs aren’t a big deal to a lot of people anymore, but more than that no one is doing 9-5 with an hour for lunch and a short commute either side these days. I think a lot of people find it hard to cope being out of the house from 7:30 to 8:00 every day, and being expected to work hard and look like they care. My drug of choice is caffeine. If coffee was taken away society would crumble. It’s not a reasonable way for people to live.

overnightangel

I am British living in the US, DH is also British based in the US, but travels frequently to the UK. The 2 of the 3 people in my OP were in the UK.

I think it’s partially that drugs aren’t a big deal to a lot of people anymore

Interesting, but it must be important to employers. DH’s company is now considering worldwide weekly drug testing.

I've been saying for ages we are going to hit a coke epidemic because where as it used to be the norm to leave school and get a house and get married etc in your late teens early twenties we now encourage everyone "to live" before settling down and due to astronomical house prices, even to rent, young people are staying living at home much longer, often paying none or minimal rent. This means young people are finding themselves in full time work earning £1000pm and virtually all of it being "fun money" I live in a biggish city, worked in a pub for a few years where you get to know people and now work in a industry mainly dominated by young men and there is A LOT more young people doing coke than there isn't (in my area, northwest, anyway)

Now I have no problem with people doing what they want tbh and was no saint when I was younger but what I'm seeing more and more is this behaviour of going out on a Saturday and 5 lads split a bag of coke at 18 and slowly slowly that increases and increases till they hit 25 and everything is tits up because by the time one paycheck comes in they owe nearly all of it out to pay for last months drugs and the cycle continues.

I hope that makes sense I'm not very good at explaining things but I think it's going to reach crisis point at some point in the next few years.

but it must be important to employers

Well of course it’s a big deal to them. They mostly have totally unrealistic expectations of human beings. If people are miserable they’re going to try to find ways to cope. Drugs are a very available option.

I work in a pub in a small market town in the southeast. I'd estimate that at least 75% of my 'regulars' are also regular cocaine users (I'd class regular as 1+ session a week). The vast majority have no problem admitting to their drug usage, no one bats an eyelid. It has been very eyeopening for me.

These people are from all areas of society - Young, old, tradesmen, professionals, parents, men, women etc.

mayvis You've just described the town I live in... also in the Southeast

If it's a wee test, you just have a container of someone else's and give that in.

Or have some of your own on standby when you are clear. You can buy testing strips on the internet.

There's a few ways to get round mouth swaps, which I won't put on here. They aren't foolproof, but will most times, work.

SnapAndFartAllDayLong , the reality is that's it's most towns in the UK.

I used to work in the City in London and cocaine is everywhere, and my friends who work in media/marketing in east London say it’s very common there too.
I think you do get a lot more ‘acceptable’ addicts who still manage to turn up to work and pay the bills etc. I think people can have a very set view of what drug users look like but actually people from all walks of life do recreational drugs, and most do so without it interfering with work etc. I think we’d be shocked if we knew the truth.

The situations you’re talking about are people with addictions - which don’t discriminate by job, income level or “respectability”. I can’t imagine that anybody who isn’t an addict uses heroin whilst driving their company van or sells their employer’s equipment to feed their habit.

Generally, I think social and recreational drug use is becoming more accepted - I think many people are becoming less accepting of the myth that, just because something is illegal means it is inherently dangerous; and probably also sceptical of regressive government drug policies which don’t work. Virtually everyone in my social circle (all professionals, senior managers and so on) uses party drugs recreationally and quite openly - though nobody, as far as I’m aware, during the day or outside of a social context. I’vd never known any employer to enforce a urine testing clause either - it’s only something my employer would do if somebody appeared under the influence whilst at work.

I don't normally like slippery slope arguments but I've known too many who have gone from coffee to caffeine pills to ephedrine to amphetamines and more. Why? To work harder and play harder. To get more done because that is what is expected of us. There is a huge problem that's been brewing for years, perhaps even a century or more. It wasn't that long ago that the US military at least were actively using stimulants to keep soldiers awake for 36 hours or so.

Iwasjustabouttosaythat

That’s fine if you use drugs as a way to cope with life it’s up to you. But why would you apply for a job that requires you to be sober?

Drugs are rife in the city of London. Lots of professionals using them recreationally and to keep them going with the long hours.

I find it all a bit scary how normalised it's become.

I agree.

Too much pressure across the board, every level of life.

The union suggested a four day week, and I think there is room in this idea for expansion and to change the way we all live. It is costing our society in so many ways to be overworked and under paid. Lets all just
be under paid if they can't change that, but we don't need to be overworked as well.
Everyone would benefit, children, elderly relatives, mental health, health in general, time for sports and exercise. I can see that the NHS would surely benefit. Some people could drop all their props to keep them going and become truly healthy.

Our country needs a wholesale change. I don't support Corbyn etc, but I do support the need for change.

I used to take recreational drugs and.never came across any heroin users aside from the unemployed ones I'd occasionally see picking up needles from my GP surgery. Heroin isn't really a professional's drug.

Cocaine is very widespread but the guy selling his laptop etc must've really hit rock bottom - like what an alcoholic is compared to the average weekend drinker.

I don't really care about weed tbh. It makes people lazy but less of a problem to society than alcohol.

I guess people think they can handle it; plus nobody ever thinks they'll get caught. My partner's in construction and they regularly undertake drug and alcohol testing, randomly, and despite knowing this every week people are sacked for having it present in their urine.

So are we saying that life has become to hard to cope with?

Yes, life has become hard to cope with for a lot of people. Traditional stabilising influences like church and family are in decline, while social media, consumerism and endless choice have all made life harder.

So are we saying that life has become to hard to cope with?

I don't think it's just that. I think it's a coalescence of day-to-day life being hard for all sorts of reasons (immense pressure at work, increased precarity at work), there being a general malaise around the future (it's so so difficult for averagely-paid young people to ever consider owning their own home, pensions are frankly a fantasy, and inequality just keeps growing), the individualisation of society (a lack of community means a lack of a sense of "shame" and duty), and the easy availability of drugs.

If the drug epidemic in any way threatened the wealth and lifestyle of the 1%, it'd have been dealt with.