Marijuana.com

Peety

Me and my friend are both interested in becoming firefighters, and he went to some fire academy tour thing. And they said that they screen the new fightfighters with not only drug tests, but also polygraph tests to see if they ever did. Im just curious to see if this is actually true, or just another scare tactic? Any firefighters here? or people that used to be firefighters/family members?

Any help would be great.

 

CheebaMonkey

Police officers and firefighters can be subject to polygraph tests. I don't know if all firefighters and police officers everywhere have to take the test.

City of SunnyvaleI'm very skeptical of a statement like that. Seems to me there is a chance that they will ask you if you have used illegal drugs (or if you are still using them).

It's pretty sad that we live in a society where some employer's will fire you (or deny you a job) on the spot if you test positive for marijuana, but don't have a problem if you smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.

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reworg

I was a firefighter/paramedic for 8 years. Could push meds before I could buy alc.
If you want to be a firefighter and have yoiur smoke too, go to a private academy. Several community colleges offer these. They run anywhere from 4 months to 2 years depending on whether you want a degree or cert. When you complete the academy, you will usually have 12 months to get a job before your cert lapses. Go to work in a rural setting (small towns). Most of them do not test (In rural Texas anyway). The only thing you have to worry about is if you get injured as a ff or needlestick as a paramedic...then you can bet the hospital will test. As far as the career side of it, firefighters generally have a good career, but if you slide to the EMS side you will most likely burn out within 10 years. If you have any questions, feel free to pm me.