But wouldn't that be an individual's choice like any other user at any other company where law enforcement should be the key? I am sure there are users in my company, but how is that my company's fault or the entire industry? How is a company or industry ultimately responsible; I mean we have a hard enough time getting laws passed and sentencing held; now we want companies to be held accountable? I can see them needing to test employees and perspectives and having the ability to fire ASAP when they catch someone on the job, but in that lie other discussions; about fighting unions and/or privacy rights threats and even racial and favoritism lines get drawn. AN UGLY MESS FOR SURE!
I thought long and hard about how to reply to this; not wanting to make a classic Pit-like response.
But its hard to take this argument seriously.
Lets see in what ways the industry has responsibility for drug use and crime in the energy fields of western Colorado (and most of Wyoming for that matter).
1) The Energy companies do not seriously try to discourage the use of meth in the gas fields. They have drug testing policies, but they are lax in enforcement; and cast a blind eye to the half-assed implementation of their policies by subcontractors.
2) They schedule workers in on 7 off 7 day routines; with long shifts each work day. The "man camps" are ripe for drug abuse, given the fact that these guys are in isolated locations, with little to do. Moreover, they have lots of cash.
3) The presence of these rigs with a ripe "market" for drugs, provides great incentives for drug dealers to find their customers. This brings even more crime to the area.
I am not making this stuff up. We have been conducting interviews with inmates in county jails across western Colorado all summer. In one county, 25% of the inmates we interviewed, had been employed in the energy industry at the time of their arrest. The interviews are filled with discussions of how much drugs there is on the rigds and at the man camps.
Discussions with the district attorney and law enforcement in Garfield County, where the industry is in high gear, support this; so does increased crime which has come to the area since the boom began.
But no, the energy companies have no responsibility for the increase in crime and substance abuse that have come with them. I refuse to accept that argument.
But the tour should be quite interesting.
