Show and Tell

Studying stupidity in all of its forms has made me what I am. No surprise then, that I avidly read about drug tests for Public Utilities Commission nominees.

You'd have to be as hopeless as former Miami Dolphin Ricky Williams to schedule your bottle-filling and get caught. Maybe that's the point.

I roll my eyes when some politician offers to bare his/her bladder. Sometimes I think they're all on drugs, but that's a different blog.

It's an invasion of privacy, always has been. It crept in legitimately: bus drivers, train engineers, public safety personnel. (Woops, careful where you point that gun.) Who can argue with that? Not me.

Generally, it's nobody's business what you do on your own time when you get over our society's schizophrenic views on drug use. Besides, marijuana camps in your system like a deadbeat relative; ice and other amphetamines flush through you like bad party food. Goofy beats psycho any day.

Public safety? I'll buy that, but even there, the important testing happens after there is an incident.

Testing, one, two

A boat captain I know was heading back after a successful fishing trip. He was tempted to dip into the cooler for just one beer. Good thing he didn't, because a passenger keeled over through no fault of his and the Coast Guard wanted his donation.

Get past that, and you're talking about a performance issue. If somebody isn't cutting it write 'em up. Warn them. Fire them. Drugs are one possible cause, it could be staying up all night on the internet visiting porn sites or SOSaipan. Deal with the issue and don't go into someone's private life unless you're invited.

Newly-whelped Commonwealth Utilities Director Tony Muna meant something like that when he said: "I think whether it is drug use or laziness or they can't get out of bed or they can't get to work on time, I think we don't expect those folks to meet performance standards". More stupidity for my collection actually, but the reporter led him on and used the quote to imply more than he was saying. Still, gee whiz, that's not how you build a team.

Oh, and an effective testing program costs money. I'm assuming that's why CUC stopped.

For the curious, I don't do drugs-- any more. Some biofuel like ethyl alcohol, nicotine and caffeine with a little taurine on the side maybe, but they don't count.