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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
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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.
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