Alan
Legend
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2013
- Messages
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I wasn't doubting your knowledge of the subject Elm. That's why I said "Elmgrovegnome with his experience:". I was merely giving you my bona fides too so you'd know we were on a level playing field.Elmgrovegnome with more details:
I worked with high school drop outs for 8 years. I could tell you the Pot Smokers after the first few days they were on the job. I could tell which we're pill heads and which ones were drinkers. The toughest ones to read we're the guys that dabbled in everything. The Coke heads had an edge to them all the time and they usually were lean and cut while still having good musculature. The potheads were always laid back and had a lot of trouble following directions,even if it was something I already taught them. They were usually on the soft side. The Pillheads were always nodding off around 11 and started fiending hard by 2 and either wanted to go home or get away from me for a bit, ditto for the heroine addicts. By 2 those guys had a greyish yellow tint to their skin and looked like they were struggling to just stand up. The alkies would start around 2 with the stomach cramps and claiming they were sick but didn't look sick. We didn't drug test and many of these kids used before and during work when they got a chance. It is more in depth than all of this but you get the idea. It was a very open system and I always had the kids trust because they new I was there to help them and unless they got caught in the act the worse thing that could happen was they get sent home without pay. They were surprisingly very open with me about their habits. I figured that if the State would not let me drug test the best thing I could do is try to understand their stance and win their trust and try to help them from a friendlier angle. It worked for most of them, but not all. I also had kids that were drug free that had other troubles, like social skill problems or autism. Once in a while I got a problem free kid that was very easy to deal with, but they got through the program very quickly and we found them permanent employment easily.
I did my share of pot smoking and hanging with that crowd back in the college days myself too. I even had a girlfriend that tried to convince me to move to a commune with her. I am not some old Codger that walked the straight and narrow my whole life. I am critical of drug use though because just like Alcohol, too much of it can interfere with leading a healthy life and definitely can be a detriment to the work environment. As a former Kung Fu disciple I also learned that even drinking a few beers the day before a tournament had a negative affect in my performance. I cannot imagine how anyone can put forth a maximum level of effort in a sport that is full of the best athletes in the country and be at the top of there game with lingering affects of Pot in their system, if they are chronic users.
Now I see why we have such a different viewpoint on this. I must not have read your original post correctly because I thought we were talking about pot as in:"but I have been around a lot of potheads with my last job". In this post you are mainly talking about pillheads which is a completely different thing. Those on downers and other depressants do exhibit the characteristics you described in the post I replied to. Now that I know you're talking about various kinds of pills I'll look at your posts in a new light.
Just to be clear though, your description of potheads does not jibe with my experiences at all. All the "laid back potheads" you describe here might not have just been smoking pot. This is no biggie Elm. We just see different things when it comes to characteristics exhibited by the potheads we are (in my case) or the ones we interact with.