Resort towns high in failed marijuana tests

[Benny Profane]

Seven Colorado areas exceed U.S. average in positive workplace exams


By Joanne Kelley, Rocky Mountain News
June 10, 2006
ASPEN - This party town is a target in the government's drug war, a decades-old fight that has long found allies in businesses that screen job candidates for dope use.
Now there's fresh ammunition: data pinpointing exactly which parts of the U.S. have the highest proportion of people flunking workplace marijuana tests.

Some of Colorado's mountain resorts - Aspen among them - rank near the top among the seven areas in the state that exceed the national average for positive marijuana testing.

A surprise for Aspenites?

"Not really," said Karen Vallecillo, human resources director for the swank St. Regis Hotel at the base of Aspen Mountain. "The hospitality industry tends to attract people that would more likely be occasional drug users."

Still, Vallecillo reported a lower frequency of positive drug tests at the Aspen property than at hotels in other cities where she has worked.

The drug of choice among those who fail tests in Aspen?

"Marijuana," she said, noting methamphetamine use among job candidates showed up more often in a previous hiring post in another state.

A few blocks away in the former mining town turned high-end resort, the upscale Hotel Jerome said no potential applicant has failed a drug test since it adopted a screening policy.

"Everybody we've extended offers to has passed," Jerome spokeswoman Jennifer Barnhart said. "We've been very fortunate."

Barnhart said the Jerome started testing all potential workers after the lodging association recommended that all local hotels institute a uniform policy.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drm...765064,00.html

[Tippster]

This just in: "....duh."

[Mybad!]

I was one in Keystone during the winter of 96-97.