[maximinus_thrax]

> Except for high-security jobs, which are never possible remotely anyway, I have never heard of a client or employer asking for a drug test.

Some companies have contracts with the Federal Government and even if you won't be working on those projects or won't have to get the security clearance, there are certain clauses in the contracts which requires the company to not have employees drink at work, to drug test employees and other stuff like that.

I once was asked to do a drug test as the offer was contingent on the drug test to clear because of this kind of contract. I rejected the offer from other reasons, but the recruiter told me we can schedule the drug test weeks in advance, to make sure 'everything is out of your system, just in case'. It was a urine test, and I got the feeling that the company was trying to make sure the test was going to clear regardless of my lifestyle outside of work, no questions asked.

Also, the recruiter told me it was a one-time thing for me and other 'general purpose' employees, but persons directly involved in the whole security clearance government stuff were subject to random testing.

[eep_social]

I heard a (likely apocryphal) story that selling govcloud service would require drug testing for employees that had any access at all to those systems. The story goes that the engineering leader laughed their sales counterpart making the proposal out of the room because they expected to lose approximately a third of their employee base to such nonsense. This was before marijuana legalization became so widespread, I assume some kind of reality has taken hold now such that the requirements are achievable by a tech population that, anecdotally, smokes a lot of weed off hours.

[red-iron-pine]

weed is still illegal under federal law, so its a no-no if you're doing federal work. state-level is a different story.

in most cases no one cares if you did it last year, but you gotta be clean while on the gub'mnt / contractor payroll.

unofficially after the drug test i don't think anyone asks too many questions. just make sure you don't have to lie on the background check cuz I've seen people upgrade from a Secret to higher, and the higher clearance investigations went deeper and found stuff. RIP job in that case.

but seriously tho, knew a dude who did GIS work for the DIA and he was ripping a bong the second he got home. he eventually got really into the cult-y motivational speaker world, not sure where he is now, but was making fat stacks while blazing for a while