Drug Testing at Work - And I'm NOT Talking About Baseball

Where I work, we have random drug testing. The company nurse calls you, and you need to report to the office for a little hair snip. There's no reason for it - it's a research and development environment where most people don't do any driving or other kinds of things where drug testing might be beneficial. Also, as it was explained to me by our company nurse, nobody at my location has ever had a positive drug test.

But it's still intimidating. Our random testing system had been in place a number of years before I was called for my first two tests last year. Needless to say, I passed the tests, but was left scratching my head as to why we did random tests instead of testing for particular job functions or where drug use is suspected.

Now, suppose that you expected a drug test. I guess the first thing you'd think about doing would be to get someone to shoot you so you could get out of the test. Such was the thinking of Daniel Kuch, of Pasco, Washington state, who took a bullet in the shoulder to avoid taking a drug test at work.

Mr. Kuch acknowledged that he asked his friend to shoot him so he could get some time off work and avoid the drug test.

I missed 3 days with the flu. It was nice to not go to work but I still haven't caught up. If I had been scheduled for a drug test I'd still have to get it done when I returned to work, so getting shot in the shoulder, or anywhere else for that matter, hardly seems worth it.