Slashdot Mirror
Techies Rampant on Drugs
Several folks noted this story running on the LA Times which talks about techie running rampant on drugs. Compares dot commers to the Wall Street druggies in the eighties. Fairly bleak picture actually. Personally I don't have time for anything more then whiskey (and even that seems to occur less and less as I get older).
I dunno, even if I wasn't a social pot smoker, I wouldn't take a drug test for a job. Its not worth it.
Drug testing doesn't show current impairment. What I did last friday night, on my free time, when my pager was off, is MY TIME. It is not my employers time. They have NO RIGHT to criticize how I spend that time.
My drug use is between me and my doctor (who BTW has never raised any objections to pot smoking - and yes, he knows). If my employer can't respect my right to live the lifestyle which I choose to live, whatever it may be, then that means that they do not respect me as an adult member of society.
I refuse to work for an employer that can't respect that my time is MY TIME.
The places that I, and people I know, work (which, for me, includes a hospital) have the following policy (in my words):
"We will drug test, if we believe that a person has been using drugs ON THE JOB"
Other than that they don't test. When it comes to suspecting current impairment, during working hours, I am all for making sure people arn't high. But again - testing doesn't show current impairment. It shows evidence of use within the past 3-30 days (depending on the drug).
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
dotcomtelecom.com! world headquarters (AP): Every morning, Bart Flanders rolls out of bed, throws on some clothes, and goes to work. Sixteen hours later, he is still there, finishing a major project for his company, dotcomtelecom.com!. He has worked for six days straight on this schedule and, nearly consumed by exhaustion and stress, now has a choice.
"I've been drug free for all of my life," Bart says, pacing outside his office building. A green sign across the street catches his eye. "The product has to ship tomorrow. Our investors will be there for the rollout. If I can just pull one more all-nighter, we can do this. Everyone else on my team is doing it." He pauses, and a weary smile crosses his face. "Wow, I never thought I'd actually say that. It's so, like, just like an after school special. I guess this is how junkies get started."
For all too many programmers, Bart's dillema is a familiar one. Known on the street as 'joe', 'code juice' and 'venti', use of coffee is increasingly prevalent among the programming digiterati. And experts are alarmed by its rapid gains among the road crews of our nation's cyber-highway.
"Cocaine and binge drinking have always been pretty standard among the CEOs. And LSD and marijuana are pretty much job requirements in marketting. We in Vice are used to cruising through a startup on tuesdays and thursdays, busting half the company or more," Lt. Chuck Wagner reports. He leads the 'Internet Startup Division' of the Los Gatos police department. "What's got us worried are these techie guys. I mean, I can understand a CEO needing a few lines to unwind with two of his girlfriends after a hard day. I mean these guys have stressful lives, what with being proactive and all that. But why would a mere techie be doing joe? We're watching them-- we know they're not partying. So what are they doing with their time? That's the big mystery."
Techies, as they are fondly known by their pals in marketting, are the socially dysfunctional experts who provide internet startups with valuable mockups and beta copies to show to investors. These computer geniuses are valued employees, and are carefully shielded from such terrible messes as senior staff meetings, strategy sessions and promotions.
"I don't understand it at all," confides Laura Graham, VP of operations for dotcomtelecom.com!. "I mean, we don't let these guys make any decisions whatsoever. They don't have to go to conferences, parties, etc. And I don't let them anywhere near the wild, hallucenigenic orgies which I am rumored to host. All we ask in return is that they ship a product with wildly varying requirements within hours of the unrealistic deadline we promised to the venture capital firm which is just trying to test the waters before investing in our competitor. I mean, how hard is that? It isn't like they are adaptivating, or strategizing, or playing golf. We let them play on the magic glass boxes, and we talk about the magical wonderland which is javaembeddedinternetconnectedfutureVR-TML 5.0."
"Laura just doesn't get it," Bart says with a shrug. "We're trying to create a more secure ecommerce model, and she's telling us to do it in Virtual Reality. She hasn't even been to work in two weeks." Bart is still tempted by the green sign across the street. It should be easier in his cubicle, where there are no distracting windows, but there, the smell of espresso is strong.
"It boils down to this: I have a job to do, and x hours to do it in. Without some joe, I won't be able to finish. You tell me what I need to do. I know the risks. I've lost good friends to coffee. I've seen the desperation, the shakes, the demented ravings of people crashing after a two day high. I know people who have two hundred dollar a week habits, and that's not counting cream and sugar. I've heard the cries of pain and anguish from the men's restroom. But I have to do this. Just this once."
Bart returns to his desk a few minutes later, with a paper cup and a sharp, edgy expression. On his desk is a bag with enough pure, uncut joe to last nearly a week. Its street value is at least $50.
"I know what this looks like. But I'm not a junkie. Once we've shipped our product, I'm throwing this out. It's only this once." Bart's expression turns plaintive; he fortifies himself with another sip. "You don't think I'm going to be an addict now, do you? I don't want to die."
The Dissociated Press Contributed to this report.
> As for "hard" drugs, I have a few tech friends
> who smoke marijuana, but that's the extent of
> it. Those same friends are scared of the hard
> stuff, because they know what it'll do to you.
Ya know...assuming its clean drug (ie it wasn't produced in someones bathtub and contains lots of impurities - or wasn't cut with some nasty stuff) - and even somtimes when it isn't. Drugs themselves arn't that harmful.
Its abuse that causes harm. Or rather overuse. You can use heroin, and not become addicted. Same for caffeine, alcohol, coke, anything.
Drugs don't "make people stupid", they don't make you smart either. Even the VERY FEW drugs like alcohol, MDMA, PCP, etc which are known to "kill brain cells" well the brain is redundant as hell. Only the most biased and conflicted of interest studies have ever shown measurable cognitive deficit.
The real trap is when you start using drugs all the time to the exclusion of other activities. Stop going to school. Stop having fun in other ways, start to feel you need the drug.
There are people who can maintain themselves and monitor their usage (much the way a scuba diver monitors the air in his tank, or a sky diver watches the altimeter), there are many who can't.
There are some people (I have known some) who will quit drugs, and then become just as addicted and allow their lives to be just as controlled by other things, like a church, or a woman.
As someone I know said "The high incidence of drug users who are losers is not because drugs make them loser, but rather, if your already a loser, you might as well be a high loser".
As for Heroin, valium and alcohol being a bad mix. Thats what harm reduction is all about. Teaching people enough information to use their drugs safely. Afterall, even among the more intelligent users, MOSt will never research their drugs first, unless the info is handed to them.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
I'll say
How many times have you been looking at old code and thought "What were they smoking when they wrote this?"
This is supposed to be great art. So why does it look like a bunch of decapitated naked people? -- Calvin
There is no Wise County, NC. There are no such records in the local news in the Research Triangle Area of NC.
What editor let this piece of poorly researched crap see ink?
Certified Black Helicopter Pilot *** Unwitting Dupe of One World Gov'ment
then of course there was the drug culture of the 70s....and the drug culture of the 60s....
Then there was the drug culture of the 50s, of course that was legal; Cary Grant was very public about the fact that he used LSD over 100.
Then of course there was thr 40s and the 30s...and who can forget the roaring 20s.
Drug use has gone on since the dawn of time. Humans (and yes, even some other animals) have been using drugs forever. Hell... bars are just another form of a "Drug den".
A recent study showed that students who graduate from the DARE program are more liklely to use drugs than kids who don't. We just need, as a culture, to face the fact that drugs are interesting, and no amount of "drugs are bad m'kay" is going to change that.
In every community there will always be drug use. Its not a problem, its a reality. It is part of human nature. It is something that just must be accepted. To fight it is to make it worst, its like struggling against quicksand.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"