Pennsylvanians Too Stoned to Go to Work

Survey: One-third of new hires in PA refuses or fails a drug test.

Ever wish you could skip work and spend the day in a blitzed-out haze of pot smoke, junk food, and giant-screen plasma televisions? If you’re in Pennsylvania, the answer is: Of course!

At least, that’s what we make of a new survey of 200 manufacturers from the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association. Its bottom line: One-third of all applicants for “good paying jobs” end up ineligible for work because they won’t take a drug test … or because they did take the test and failed.

Nineteen percent of applicants skipped the required drug tests, the group says.

“The fact that almost one in five potential employees does not complete the required pre-employment drug test underscores the difficulty many employers face in finding reliable and dependable workers,” the group said in a press release. 

Out of every 100 candidates, another 13 fail the test, the survey said.

A couple of things we don’t know: What kind of drugs were found in tests. What kind of jobs they were being tested for. We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt; manufacturing jobs tend to have higher wages than other sectors.

The result of all this drug use, though, is that manufacturers are finding it tough to fill 8,000 manufacturing jobs across the state. The lesson, clearly: Drugs are bad. Don’t do drugs.  (PA Manufacturers’ Association)