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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 1973)
TONIGHT IS PEAH I BLITZ ^ ON DRAFT | NUT! NIGHT I MAX'S £ SHIRT , LOOKS h by S.F. Shirtworks Sweet Baby Jane Byer of California $14.95 > $14.95 $14.95 Employer survey reveals bias against pot users BY JIM WORLEIN Of The Emerald The results of a recent survey of Eugene area manufacturers on the subject of marijuana, con ducted by the ASUO Drug In formation Center, gave its author. Bob Radding, a few surprises. Radding, an anthropology major at the University, told the Emerald “The results surprised and scared me a little. There was a lot of contradiction.” Radding did the survey fall term under the sponsorship of the Drug Information Center. The Center used the 17-page report for their seminar on psycho active drugs last term. Questionnaires were sent to 140 area manufacturers in an “at tempt to establish the extent to which local business attitudes regarding marijuana use affect employability.” The questionnaires were sent only to manufacturers (not stores, construction outfits, and such) with five employees or more. Forty-two confidential responses were returned to the center and Radding compiled the subsequent results in his analysis. It was found that many em ployers who ask prospective employees about their use of drugs ask the question in reference to all drugs, with alchohol and tobacco included. Radding makes the presumption that this indicates that there is social awareness of the entire drug abuse problem. For a “head” looking for work, the above statement would probably be the only heartening thing in the report for him or her. Stereotypes remain As the report continues with answers to the survey it becomes clearer that the people respon ding still have stereotyped at titudes towards pot and its users. The report states, “It is clear that negative, antisocial con notations prevail in the Eugene business community towards marijuana.” Two questions in the survey dealt with attitudes of employers towards marijuana smokers as individuals. Seven per cent said they could recognize a marijuana user by sight while 87 per cent they could not. However, when respondents were asked to identify out standing characteristics of a marijuana user, their answers were overwhelmingly detrimental to the user. Over 80 percent said a user was either unreliable, lazy, indifferent or slow, while only 18 per cent said they were calm, perceptive or not noticeably different. Two questions were asked ^34a.4i42^ STARTS TONIGHT OPEN 6:45 ■■ 1st show at 7:16 PryT:- — mmmfTHm THIS IS THE HILARIOUS UNCUT,ORIGINAL VERSION OF “REEFER MADNESS" DON'T BE MISLED BY SUBSTITUTES. THE 1936 • CLASSIC'' LARGELY RESPONSIBLE FOR MARIJUANA LAWS TODAY NOW A FANTASTIC COMEDY. "Hilaricus”—WABC-TV "The humor is everywhere"-Chicago Tribune "As frightening—as it is funny"-Detroit Free Press _ FWOM NIW UNC CINEMA PETER SELLERS IN I LOVE YOU, ALICE B. TOKLAS regarding the relative possibility of private users (no arrests) and public users (at least one previous arrest) being hired. Only 15 per cent of the employers would hire private users, defined in the question as a person whom the employer knew used marijuana, but hadn’t been arrested Although it might appear that a user in Eugene has little chance of procuring employment, the report did go on to say, “Even though the response to the questions would suggest that employment opportunities for a marijuana user are at a minimum in Eugene .employers were asked if their employment process included questioning applicants as to their use of marijuana....An overwhelming 78 per cent answered that this questioning is not part of their employment process...” If an employer has a suspicion that one of his workers uses marijuana his action might be severe, as indicated by the survey. Nine pa* cent would take no action and at the other ex treme 24 per cent said they would fire the employe. “Discuss suspicions with employee” and “issue a warning to employee” each garnered 35 per cent. Doctors opinions preferred Employers felt that the most credible sources of information on marijuana were medical (74 per cent), private (12 per cent) and governmental (10 per cent). When asked if they would accept the opinions of their most credible source no matter what position the source took on marijuana, 73 per cent said they would accept it unconditionally. According to Radding’s report there is a problem in distributing information on drug abuse. The last question asks of knowledge of recent studies. Response in dicated that information sources are widely distributed,with medical (35 per cent), govern mental (27 per cent), private (20 per cent) and other (two per cent) again the choices. Sixteen per cent of the respondents an swered none. Radding asserts that the report show that drug education programs are not getting through to everyone. He feels that employers in the area “are conservative on the issue of marijuana” but returned questionnaires “had attitudes from all different extremes.” Radding doesn’t know if the report is any indication of national or state trends but the Drug Information Center has sent (and has gotten requests from other institutions) copies to the National Institute of Mental Health, state legislators and other agencies concerned with drug abuse. The entire text of the report may be examined in the Drug Information Center, room 1 EMU. Guys & Gals needed for summer employment at National Parks, Private Camps, Dude Ranches and Resorts throughout the na tion Over 35,000 students aided last year. For Free information on student assistance program send self-addressed STAMPED enve lope to Opportunity Research. Dept. SJO, 55 Flathead Drive. Kalispell, MT 59901, YOU MUST APPLY EARLY ....
