Drug habits

Its absolutely rife in the city, certainly in my experience. In the brokers I used to work at. I'd estimate that half of the traders took coke. Not one of them risked it during the trading day though as they needed to stay on the ball, it was more a means of being able to cope with a day starting at 6.00 in the morning commuting to work, finishing at 17.00 and then entertaining clients into the evening.

 

They are playing with other people's money and livelihood. I understand that $8m was lost recently in a single oil futures deal in London due to the dealer being high or drunk. Surely, they should be routinely tested for drugs (and drink) every day they start, and should be prosecuted, where the Law has been broken.

 

I guess the problem would be that it's not illegal to take drugs. So unless the employer can find something on them or in their locker etc there wouldn't be a criminal prosecution.

 

It only surprises me that they don't as a single strand of hair can give a history of coke abuse.
You don't even need to test ... just say that you're going to and then on monday you sack all ones with freshly shaven heads.

 

Does there need to be a criminal prosecution to sack an employee for drug abuse?

 

I must be frank here, I don't know, but in many jurisdictions, traces of the illegal drugs in the bloodstream counts as "possession" and so can be prosecuted, but not sure about in the UK.

 

But the dealer (stock, not drug) can get another job, doing the same thing, on the basis that a previous job reference is usually very neutral these days and a problem with drugs may not be disclosed by the previous employer. At least if he is prosecuted he would normally have to declare it in a job application.

 

No, absolutely not. I was just responding to zz's specific point.

Certainly not in England and Wales, with the exception that if found to have certain drugs in their system a prisoner released on licence could be liable for recall to prison.

 

Even then I don't think possession is charged ... it's just a breech of the licence and/or condition of an agreed contract.

 

Yes absolutely. That's what I was attempting to say.

 

Right, big problem then!

I keep going back to my original stance, which is I don't care what people do to themselves, but I get annoyed when their behaviour affects others. Brokers in the City who deal in other people's money, pension funds, investments, etc would fall into that category and there should be very severe sanctions.

 

Just as a slightly distasteful aside, what happens if someone swallows drugs just before they get caught in 'normal' possession. Have they got away with it, then?

 

If it can't be measured, then yes and from my youth I know plenty who have done it with small amounts of hash .... I think there's a separate charge of concealing drugs in the body but they still need the evidence.

 

Pretty much. It depends on the individual circumstances of course, and the act of swallowing may give rise to other offences (eg. Obstruction) if witnessed by the police. Ultimately there is case law which says that once swallowed a drug changes it's nature so can no longer be said to be in the possession of the person who swallowed it.

 

It worries me that without the Law to assist, then dismissal, sanctions, etc is down to the discretion of the employer who in many cases in the City will have turned a blind eye, even encouraged the use of drugs (unofficially of course) it ensure that the desks are covered, the long hours are worked, etc. For me, this is as bad, or worse than the mistakes that were made by those made leading up to the current financial problems.

If we found out, for example, that financial decisions were made by financiers whilst under the influence of coke, then we would certainly want them strung up.

 

I'm sure it's happening but you will never catch them at it. Look at the way hedge-funders operate, it's often a one man show. One man and an array of unseeing monitors making decisions that can shift whole markets. It's a job probably made easier by cocaine masking anything that even looks like resembling a conscience.

 

There is case law of obstruction and perverting.

 

Ah yes 'perverting' I almost forgot .... you seem to be a bit of an expert Arry, what do you do?

 

Not a lot

Just kidding, work in the ASB field. Offender/case management

 

Two things:
I worked in a factory for a time and noted that quite a few co-workers would go to after work happy hours stoned with squinty eyes and glazed smiles. I asked plant human resources about drug testing with the intent to protect myself from a machine poorly maintained by a stoned co-worker from blowing up or falling on and maiming me. I was told that identifying a person with drugs in their system couldn't immediately result in firing. It was viewed as indicative of an illness that would need treatment and would cost insurance money, legal fees on the company's dime, etc. Therefore, most companies declined to pursue it unless laws were being broken on the site of the plant. So I worked with guys who were high and handled huge presses and molten plastic injector machines...no biggie

Secondly, I read an article about the unregulated nature of marijuana cultivation in California and the western states. Since it is illegal and therefore theoretically not happening, there are no regulations for the burgeoning "green gold rush" growers. So, lazy, dumb or downright mean folks will pollute waterways with unregulated fertilizer usage in national forests or use poisons to kill rodents who are in turn eaten by carrion eaters and predators whose populations are then damaged. Even clean grow houses leave a massive carbon footprint due to massive electrical consumption, estimated at nearly 2% of the national electricity usage...on cannabis cultivation alone. Incredible... I will find the link and post later...

 

The link to How Green is Your Green? Pot’s Terrible Environmental Record


http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...reen-pot-s-terrible-environmental-record.html

 

That sounds like more of an issue with the company you were working for and the ridiculous nature of our modern compensation based legal systems than a fault of green, don't get me wrong, you shouldn't turn up to work stoned, just the same as you shouldn't turn up to work pissed. Your second point raises another issue with a legal system than anything else, if legal it could all be properly regulated.

I still think you should have all voted for Ron Paul and freed the weed.

 

To be fair, most Cambodians were more worried about his human rights.

 

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