drug/alcohol testing policy: effective?

gatt wrote:
Something like .1% of the pilots randomly tested for alcohol and
drugs (one
was .5%, I believe) tested positive in 2004. That's one in a
thousand. As
a result of this percentage, the random test rate will stay at 25%
for drugs
and something similar for alcohol.

I seem to recall that the false positive rate for the lower-cost tests
(those that don't cost hundreds of dollars per test) is also something
like 0.1%. Perhaps that means the actual rate is zero, and the only
effect of the policy is to increase costs and ruin careers while doing
nothing to improve safety. That would be about par for the FAA.

Meanwhile, commercial pilots and operators say that the cost of a
Part-135-type drug and alcohol testing program is nearly cost
prohibitive,
so it can be argued that this sort of testing program hurts General
Aviation.

Which suggests to me that they're probably not using the expensive
tests with low false-positive potential.

The discussion is, is the aviation community's drug and alcohol
habit--or
lack thereof--influenced by drug testing policy; do pilots obstain
because
of drug tests, or do they obstain because they're pilots?

Pilots don't abstain. I know lots of professional pilots, and as a
whole they're the heaviest drinkers I know. They don't drink when
they're flying, though. I also know quite a few who quit smoking dope
after testing kicked in. None of them was ever high on the job,
though. I weigh in solidly on the "Testing is a waste of time and
money" side of the equation.

What are peoples' thoughts and experiences?

In my last job, we all ****ed in a bottle. We worked with radioactive
materials in refineries and chemical plants, so it just made sense.
Yeah, right.

The only positive that ever came up was from my boss - who was rabidly
anti-drug. He tested positive for opiates (heroin). He screamed
bloody murder, and because he was a senior manager and not a peon, an
investigation was done. There was a retest, which also showed positive
for opiates, but at a lower concentration. However, when the sample
was sent to a proper lab, it turned out to be a false positive - a
related chemical which is a breakdown product of poppy seeds. That
poppyseed bagel did him in.

In spite of this, I found the remains of a marijuana cigarette (a
roach) in the bathroom of our shop - only used by employees who were on
the program. Somehow they were passing the random tests - meaning they
had figured out a way to beat it. Truth is, I know exactly who was
high on the job - it was obvious from the quality of the work.
However, I couldn't have him fired for it - he was passing the tests.
One fine day he missed not one but THREE flights as I waited for him at
the airport and the customer got ****ed. We never got another contract
at that facility again. He was fired for this.

I don't have much respect for drug testing. I think it's a way for
lazy managers to hand over the tough decisions to a technician.
Michael