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Florida Union Opposes Drug Tests And Physical Exams
St. Petersburg Times
When people call 9-1-1 for help, they expect emergency responders to be physically and mentally ready to perform all tasks the call requires. But when it comes to St. Petersburg firefighters, residents may wonder. The fire union opposes Mayor Bill Foster's demand that firefighters submit to random drug tests and yearly physical exams. Those are reasonable requirements that would be in the best interest of firefighters and the public.
The issue is preventing the union and city from reaching accord on a new contract, with only days remaining on the current contract. Foster said firefighters shouldn't fear the drug testing "unless they have something to hide." He wants the physicals done to ensure that firefighters won't "stroke out" during a rescue or while fighting a fire. St. Petersburg police agreed to the both drug testing and physicals.
The city's current fire union contract allows drug testing only when supervisors see signs the employee is under the influence of drugs or alcohol. But those aren't always easy to see. And it is important that firefighter/paramedics, who have access to powerful drugs at work, know they could be tested at any point.
The current union contract also provides for mandatory physicals, but firefighters have found a way to avoid them. They refuse to sign the release of liability that medical providers now require any time they are going to disseminate patient information. City officials say they don't get employees' medical information, just a notice that the firefighter is or isn't fit for duty. But doctors have refused to perform the exams when patients won't sign the form.
And an arbitrator ruled the city can't discipline firefighters who won't sign, thus providing a loophole for those who want to avoid exams.
A union official said firefighters are suspicious the city could obtain medical information to use against them in workers' compensation cases.
The union's concerns can be overcome. They don't trump the need to ensure that firefighters, for their own sake and the public's, are fit for the job. And city firefighters should not be treated differently from police officers.
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St. Petersburg firefighters should have drug tests and physicals
Copyright 2010 Times Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved
September 27, 2010
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by M.J. 6821 on
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If our engineer was drunk or hungover he wouldnt be on the call and his butt would be in the chiefs office bc we can see that he is in that shape, you can't always tell who is on illicit drugs. And if someone tests positive for marijuana and they get canned so be it. Marijuana is illegal for a reason.
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Permalink Reply by Vic Silverfish on
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I just wanted to see if anyone was paying attention!
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Really? You can tell when someone is fatigued after a night of drinking, even though their BAC is well below legal limits?
My point with the poppy seeds is that besides the civil liberties aspect, is easy for an innocent person to get burned by a rule like this. Drug tests (just like roadside alcohol tests) do not change my behaviour in the slightest, but they do provide an opportunity to get me in a lot of trouble that I do not deserve.
Jeez, apply the same set of restrictions to the right to bear arms and see what happens.
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which will still find opiate metabolites!
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Roadside checkpoints check for people that are drinking and driving if your not over the legal limit how would you be in trouble you don't deserve, drug tests check to see if there are illegal substances in your urine or blood so if your not using illegal substances you have nothing to worry about.
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if your not using illegal substances you have nothing to worry about.
You've admitted above that using legal substances (in this case, bagels) can give you something to worry about.
In both cases, it's a warrentless intrusion into my personal space that is only made possible by a combination of legal ju-jitsu and public apathy.
Let me put it in a different light - since we're looking to eliminate drug use, should the police (or your employer) start randomly searching people's houses? Also, we should have a look at your web use (we can do this through your ISP) to make sure you aren't going to drug sites. Since you aren't doing anything illegal, I assume you have no problem with this?
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And also according to the dept. of health and human services the level for a positive is 3000ng/ml far greater then what the tests that were on mythbusters detected.
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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With the length of time that we've had random breath testing on our roads, I'm well used to it. And actually in favour of it - there have been many drink drivers put off the road, may well have saved the life of one of my friends.
I don't know about NSW Vic, but here in Victoria the police are also doing random drug tests on the road (and yes there have been issues with the accuracy!). I see it all as a means of helping more inocent people stay alive.
I do understand your view Vic.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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That's not accurate. There is a lot of questionable science in roadside alcohol and drug testing, a lot of questionable evidence collection, and a lot of it gets thrown out in court after the fact because the some law enforcement assumes - incorrectly - that all of the science and all of the technology is infallible. It clearly is not.
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Marijuana likely won't be illegal for much longer. What's the "reason" if and when that occurs?
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I have a friend who had a false positive at one of my former employers. The alleged concentration was less than the margin of error for the test, but management still fired him. He had to fight them in court for years, and eventually won. He's still working in an adjacent jurisdiction and is doing fine.
Further, the "positive" drug test wasn't random. He was tested after self-reporting secondhand exposure to marijuana smoke on an OD call.
A false positive combined with inept policies and closed-minded managers can do serious harm to an innocent person.
I've heard of several other false positive resultss, and I've known false negatives from firefighters or paramedics who took so many prescription drugs that they masked virtually everything in the drug panel.
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