After losing rounds in trial and appellate courts, the Shasta Union High School District has backed off its policy of mandatory random drug testing of non-athletes. The policy, expanded beyond athletics and instituted three years ago, applied to all students who participate in competitive extracurricular activities such as marching band, math, mock trials, choir and drama. Non-athlete students were randomly chosen weekly for testing, Denny Walsh reports in the Sacramento Bee. They were pulled from class, taken to a bathroom and required to urinate in a cup while a monitor listened outside the stall. The [...]
SAN FRANCISCO — An employer can refuse to hire someone who has ever tested positive for marijuana or other drugs, even if the applicant is now clean and sober, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. In a 2-1 decision, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the “one-strike” rule of the Pacific Maritime Association, which controls hiring in the West Coast longshore industry, doesn’t discriminate against rehabilitated addicts in violation of disability laws. The rule “imposes a harsh penalty on applicants who test positive,” and may seem unreasonable because many drug [...]
Attorneys for Shasta County students are asking a state appellate court in Sacramento to publish its opinion upholding a preliminary injunction barring a high school district from enforcing mandatory random drug testing of non-athletes. In the opinion issued earlier this month, the 3rd District Court of Appeal also rejected the Shasta Union High School District’s request that it address the merits of the students’ claims that the policy violates the privacy and search provisions of the California Constitution. Instead, the three-justice panel limited its review to whether a trial court judge abused her discretion in [...]
SACRAMENTO — In a ruling by California’s chief justice nominee, a state appeals court has barred a school district from drug testing all students in extracurricular activities such as choir, the school band and Future Farmers of America. The Shasta Union High School District in Northern California began the testing in 2008, saying the prospect of being disqualified from a favorite after-school activity would discourage youths from using drugs or alcohol. The district noted that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that random drug tests of all students in extracurricular programs did not violate [...]
Bud’s note: Legal marijuana’s impact on workplace drug-testing policies is an important issue that’s been underreported. Stephanie Hoops of the Ventura County Star provides an excellent overview about what marijuana legalization means for employers and employees. ============================= If California ever legalizes marijuana usage, employers will still have the right to test employees for it, experts say, because the proposed laws don’t offer new protections in the workplace. “The employers will continue to have the right to determine what level of impairments they allow in their workplaces,” said Karen Gabler, an Oxnard lawyer who specializes in [...]
Apr 082010
UPDATE: 6-month prison term for Wills, probation for Catalano PITTSBURGH — Two Southern California men and their Internet company are scheduled for sentencing by a federal judge in Pittsburgh for selling a male prosthetic known as the Whizzinator that helped men cheat on drug tests. George Wills, of San Pedro, and Robert Catalano, of Huntington Beach, each pleaded guilty in November 2008 to conspiracy to sell drug paraphernalia and conspiracy to defraud the United States through their company, Puck Technology, which also faces sanctions in federal court Thursday. The federal government prosecuted the case because [...]
The Riverside Press-Enterprise reports that a proposed ballot initiative to require annual testing of lawmakers for drugs and “habitual use of alcohol” is well short of the nearly 434,000 signatures it needs by Thursday’s deadline to qualify for the 2010 ballot. “We’re substantially way off the path,” said Gary Ellis, of Lake Arrowhead. Ellis said he and other supporters have gathered about 100,000 signatures since mid-July, when his initiative drew headlines and attention on KFI-AM’s “John and Ken” radio show. Under the proposal, lawmakers who test positive would need to complete a substance-abuse program before [...]
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