Connect with us

Can Concerned Employers Use Video Games To Test For Weed Impairment?

Can Concerned Employers Use Video Games To Test For Weed Impairment

News

Can Concerned Employers Use Video Games To Test For Weed Impairment?

Anthony/Pexels

Can Concerned Employers Use Video Games To Test For Weed Impairment?

Employers are investing in video game drug tests that can tell if you’re high, sad or exhausted in under a minute.

As an alternative to urine tests, some employers are turning to video games to test for cannabis impairment. Compared to other forms of testing, these tests are cost-effective, less intrusive, and within the law. And within a few minutes, these video games can detect everything from drug and alcohol impairment to emotional states.

Drug Testing Is Expensive and Ineffective

Can Concerned Employers Use Video Games To Test For Weed Impairment

Denise M. Jenson/Air Force Medical Service

There aren’t many accessible ways to test for weed. Until something like a fingerprint drug test becomes widespread, employees and police officers have few options. The most commonly used drug test is a urine test, which can detect THC levels in the body.

As most weed smokers know, THC can stay in your system for weeks. Even if you haven’t been high in days, you can easily fail a urine drug test. This type of testing cannot sense whether alcohol and marijuana are interacting, or other things that employers might care about like fatigue and emotions.

Physical and emotional conditions can have deadly consequences for certain jobs. Poorly rested truck drivers can fall asleep at the wheel causing fatal car accidents. A study found that sleeping for less than 5 hours resulted in 11.5 percent more car accidents than truck drivers who slept for over 7 hours.

Strong emotions, like grief, can also negatively impact someone’s work. If an employee is working with machinery, this could also have a deadly impact. Until now, there have been few ways to test for weed or health.

Urine Tests Aren’t Always Legal

Though drug testing is still very common in the workplace in the US, Canadian advocacy groups argue that urine testing infringes on your right to privacy. After a Canadian Supreme Court ruling, Canadian businesses must have “concrete evidence” that there is drug abuse in their company before testing employees.

Now that marijuana is legal federally, Canadian employers have the tough task of dealing with higher rates of marijuana consumption. Alcohol has detectable limits in the bloodstream when someone is intoxicated. Detecting whether someone is high is harder and more subjective.

Video Games Can Test For Weed

Can Concerned Employers Use Video Games To Test For Weed Impairment

Predictive Safety/Vimeo

These tests, aren’t your typical video game. AlertMeter offers impairment tests that you can run on a smartphone or company tablet. With data from 10 tests, it’ll establish a profile for you and determine your baseline alertness. In subsequent tests, it can determine whether you’re operating below your normal level.

The tests generally involve shapes and rotating images and test your ability to recognize patterns. AlertMeter uses a patented Alertness Test from Bowles-Langley Technologies.

There’s another video game test called Druid that detects weed impairment. Druid, which you can download on your phone, measures physical and cognitive levels. It measures things like hand-coordination and reaction time in minutes. This weed impairment testing ap is designed for drivers who want to test their weed impairment before getting behind the wheel.

The Benefits of Video Game Weed Testing

Can Concerned Employers Use Video Games To Test For Weed Impairment

DRUID app/Youtube

Video game testing could be a more equitable solution for employees and employers in a more 4/20-friendly world. Instead of having to take urine tests, and be wrongly accused of going to work high, employees can take a more accurate, minute-long quiz.

And employers no longer have to worry about whether their employees are high. Jon Young, General Manager of VForge, a metal bracket manufacturer, explained how AlertMeter has helped his company. “We were really struggling to hire people who could get in the door and past a test,” said Young in an AlertMeter testimonial video.

With video game testing, Young adds that employees feel more respected. Now, their drug testing costs have gone down 90 percent, spend 70 percent less on worker’s compensation cases and have 35 percent less employee turnover.

Not only is video game testing more affordable for employers, but its lets employees smoke weed outside of work and still pass a drug test.

More in News

To Top