Drug Use Still Keeping Many Ohioans From Landing Utica Shale Jobs

In the past we have mentioned on the blog the statements from those within the oil and gas industry that made it clear how drug use was costing Ohioans from getting some of the many jobs that have come available thanks to Utica shale development.

For example, there was Rhonda Reda of the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program stating back in January 2013 that 50 to 60 percent of applicants were being rejected because they can't pass a drug test.  Drug testing is also something that is brought up at every one of the hundreds of programs put on by the OOGEEP.

Despite that message being made clear, drugs remain a barrier for many who would like a job.

From Columbus Business First:
Marijuana isn’t the issue. It’s hard drugs, like prescription pills and heroin. 
“It’s not necessarily an unemployment issue, it’s an unemployable issue,” Rhonda Reda, executive director of the industry-funded Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program, told me. “In many cases we are seeing folks that have gone through training programs, are ready for employment, and they’re failing drugs tests. And it’s becoming pretty significant.” 
Reda dismissed stories about oil and gas workers bringing drugs into communities. 
“It’s very frustrating to see things like that because in our industry, we are drug testing before they get hired, and it’s an ongoing drug test,” she said.
Read more here.

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