Nathan Deal has a plan. You see, too many businesses in Georgia are struggling to get competent applicants to fill their jobs. Governor Deal believes this is in a large part due to drug testing. On this point I agree. From there, Governor Deal not only derails but runs his train of thought clear off the rail system entirely.
You see, Nathan Deals plan to increase the pool of qualified workers is not something logical, like say legalizing cannabis and recommending the removal of THC tests from drug tests. Nathan Deals incredible plan is to offer incentives (money) to private employers to notify state officials when job applicants fail drug tests. From there, the plan gets a bit vague. However, what we do know is that Governor Deal would like to get the Department of Behavioral Health involved. The federal Department of Labor was also mentioned in Governor Deals remarks.
This problem is nothing new for employers. Even FBI Director James Comey has stated I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals [in China] and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview.
You see, the solution is not to involve the government further into the affairs of private citizens, and it certainly is not to create a system where the state of Georgia is paying businesses to turn over applicants who have failed drug screens so that they may be forced into a bureaucratic nightmare of drug treatment. Workplace drug policy is actually quite simple from a business perspective. If you cannot tell that your employee is using drugs by their behavior in the workplace, then why does it matter?
Nathan Deal is absolutely ignoring the root cause of the issue, the same way he did while championing criminal justice reform. The problem being addressed here is not too many people use drugs (see: marijuana) therefore we must help them! the problem is too many businesses are scaring away potentially valuable employees due to the fear of being drug screened for a substance that doesnt affect their behavior in a notable way.
Maybe the latter is where we should focus our energies Governor Deal, not the former. Im sure a loophole in the tax code to allow Nathan Deal to pass along yet another tax break to big business isnt behind this at all. I also truly need to see about getting a sarcasm key installed on my laptop.
Good article. This is what I left at the AJC articles on this:
“Let’s stop talking in code, okay? – FBI statistics show 80 percent of all illegal drug transactions are of marijuana. And marijuana, different from hard drugs, leaves behind NON PSYCHOACTIVE trace metabolites that remain in the body for up to a month. The ONLY thing they cause are false “positives” on drug tests. So what we’re really talking about is marijuana testing for employees that consume it at home on the weekends.
Science, and widespread experience, have shown marijuana is not addictive and is FAR less harmful than alcohol. Yet, Deal wants to add further bogus punishment of good citizens who choose near harmless marijuana. This is insanity – especially in our current times when we see the monstrously destructive fraud of marijuana prohibition is crumbling, nationwide – as polls show most Americans want it to.
Instead of punishing marijuana consumers, we should pat them on the back for making the safer, wiser choice over beer, wine and other spirits.
Glad to see he’s focussing on the really important stuff when we are on pretty much every ‘worst’ list there is. In fact, we top the lists, typically. More worst practices.
I hope he is the last of the “Good Old Boys” to get elected in this state. Lets elect Curt Thompson into the Governors chair. He has the backbone to stand up and propose a comprehensive medical marijuana bill, not to mention legalization and taxation of the WHOLE plant. He has my vote
I agree! If the elected officials would get those blinders off that make them so narrow minded and get the big picture of what our state wants and needs both economically and judicially would be a breath of fresh air to everyone. Be the first southern state to approve recreational marijuana use and tax it and be done with it!! It’s coming like it or not so lets capitalize on it rather than making more idiotic policies that will only hurt more good people!!
Deal shows his true colors here. After a weepy, sympathetic act in signing into law legalized cannabis oil for a limited number of medical conditions, he failed to provide any legalization fro actually obtaining that oil. In short, it was a feel-good law that does nothing, it was merely a ploy to garner sympathy from the vast majority of Georgia voters who favor legalization. We spoke out against this, in no uncertain terms, in the newsletter of the Temple of Ankh’n’Abis/Church of the Sacred Herb (see our page on Facebook to read it.) What Deal, and others like him, fail to see is that prohibition is an oppression of FREEDOM OF RELIGION for those of us (of any faith) who see the Sacred Herb as exactly that: sacred. A sacrament, which offers not only a myriad of health benefits but also inspiration, creativity, and a connection with whatever you may consider Divine.