[mfer]

A few things.

First, I'm attempting to describe how the system works rather than give my opinion on how it should be.

Second, the headphones situation is meant to illustrate how safety plays in. This isn't a "what if" example. People on job sites wearing headphones have died because they missed the warning tones. I am aware of one case, personally.

Safety is a big deal. It plays into the insurance companies who drive much of the policies and practices. They are driving the things they do to keep their costs down. Insurance companies often try to be pretty methodical in what they do to keep costs down. It's not just random ideas but looking at cause/effect relationships.

Third, many drugs have effects outside of the time they are used. It's not just the impact of the drug while one is on it but how it affects them in the time they are not on it, as well. From a safety perspective that cannot be discounted.

From the standpoint of the companies and the people involved, if you want to do drugs than work elsewhere. Safety is a higher priority.

[jackric]

I agree Safety is the top priority. Don't risk people with drugs traces in their blood; it may degrade their competence. Also don't risk a guy that didn't sleep last night working - his competence will be degraded.

I proposed my catch-all solution for this in another comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26183297

My ideal is we just ensure competence - guy who smoked weed last night may be more competent than a clean guy getting divorced. Test the competence

[mfer]

A lot of this is driven by insurance agencies and data from investigations of events. I don't have insight into that. Insurance companies, these days, tend to be very data driven.

It would be great if there was a way to test for competence. Some drugs cause long term issues with decision making and being able to see what's likely to happen. This reminds me of a job I had years ago framing houses. I remember some of the work men firing nails from a nail gun into a nearby woods. An area where neighborhood kids happen to play.

That's poor decision making and a liability. How do you test for complex things like that?

[jackric]

Hmm perhaps decree a method/routine to processes like nail gunning. A bit like the Japanese rail staff with their pointing routines.

Film the worksite or send surprise inspectors to catch workers too lazy/reckless about their nail gunning. Maybe show them videos of nail gun injuries!

Improper nailgunning I think is more related to ingrained attitude than ephemeral competence degraders (drugs)