So, to answer Ani's earlier question, medical marijuana's pretty limited in its scope, and as far as I can tell never prescribed for anxiety or other psychological conditions, nor is it generally recognized as a treatment for insomnia. One or both of those would probably be better treated by antidepressants, and there's some correlation between drug abuse and both conditions. Which came first is the question... but both have viable non-cannabinoid treatment options.
More recently, yeah ... drug testing's pretty controversial. I remember having to do a drug test when I started working at a local grocery store, which was kinda bullshit -- you can probably stock shelves roughly as well if you're lightly baked as if you're hung over from abusing a perfectly legal depressant, which may in fact keep you more on task than being sober.
Anyway, I started a clearance job about 2 years ago that didn't have any such requirement, and involved some classified documents with actual national security implications. Then my most recent job, I did a contract-to-hire arrangement, and had to do a drug test for the contracting company but not for the actual employer. My current employer has a policy that basically says if they're looking for a reason to fire you, they might drug test, but if you're not bringing it to work and it's not affecting your quality of work, they don't care. But then, we have some positions that have higher level clearances that require disclosure of past drug use, and in the case of some of our highest level clearance stuff (TS/SCI full scope)
A friend of mine got addicted to drugs pretty much as a direct result of a co-op program he was in. He met some other co-op students who introduced him to all sorts of entertaining substances, and he really liked a couple, and went on about an 8 month long stint of heavy use. Then he pretty much disassembled his whole social safety net, and left just a couple of close friends to catch him. It was bad times.
I guess what I'm saying is ...Something else to be aware of is that for a lot of employers, unfair as it may be, simply asking about their drug testing policy at the interview raises enough red flags to assure them that they probably don't want to get involved with you. In several interviews I've sat in on, the hiring decision was pretty much made when the interviewee asked whether there's a drug testing policy. While a rare interviewer may appreciate your honesty in broaching the subject and give you points for it, most will hear the question as "I won't pass a drug test, is that a problem for you?" Generally, that's the kiss of death on a lot of professional jobs, even at places that don't have any testing policy.Originally Posted by itadakimasu
In faster-moving places (with higher turnover, lower pay, etc) the drug testing is typically expected within 24-48 hours of the interview. With slower-paced places (like the last place I had a drug test for), the company notified me by USPS that I needed a drug test, and followed up a couple days after I got the notice with a phone call telling me who to call and where to go to get it, so there was a window of several days that I knew that they didn't know for sure that I knew -- which could be used to do some good work attempting to either get clean enough to pass or otherwise defeat the drug test, if such a thing were required.
Hair testing is relatively rare, and I think relatively more expensive. If the company's willing to spring for hair testing, you might ask yourself how serious you are about wanting to work with them -- especially for an internship. Internships are very rarely the serious business that "real" jobs are...
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