Our economy in America is still pretty shaky and the job market is not doing much better. If you are taking recreational drugs in your spare time, it can still cost you the job you have and make it harder to find new employment.

Most employers today require upfront drug testing when considering candidates for hire. If you fail the test, you likely will not be offered employment. If you already have a job and experience an injury while at work, you are risking that much more by taking recreational drugs. Most employers will require a drug test immediately after the accident took place. They will either issue the test in-house or require the worker’s compensation doctor to perform the test. If recreational drugs are found in your system and may have been a factor in causing your work injury, you will likely lose your benefits from worker’s compensation. You may also be risking your position as you could be fired for violating the company’s drug use policy.

You may think that recreational drug use after-hours has nothing to do with your job. But if something goes wrong and you get hurt, that recreational drug use off company time could end up getting you terminated. If you plan to seek a new job in the near future to make ends continue to meet financially, you may once again fail a drug test affecting your employment potential due to your recreational drug usage.

It seems that using drugs for recreational purposes has a serious impact on your immediate future as well as your income potential. Now is really not the time to take your job (or your health for that matter) for granted. Accidents on the job can happen at any time and even if the drugs detected in your system are not a factor in the injury, you still risk losing it all and then some.