Why More Ohioans Don’t Work in Utica Shale Industry? Drugs

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drugs Er, um, we’re not exactly sure how to broach this delicate topic without offending a great many residents of Ohio, including Ohio Gov. John Kasich who keeps saying he doesn’t want “foreign” workers in Ohio’s oil and gas fields (meaning he wants Ohioans only, not workers from Texas and Oklahoma), but, well, Gov. Kasich? Maybe you don’t have more Ohioans working in those gas fields because 50-60% of the Ohioans applying for those jobs are druggies. Yeah, you read that right. Half or more are strung out on drugs—both illegal and/or prescription. In a recent interview, the head of the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program, Rhonda Reda, said that 50-60% of those applying for jobs in eastern Ohio’s shale industry are rejected because of the presence of illegal drugs or the “wrong” kind of prescription drugs (like Vicodin) found in the pee test. Note: we did not say half of all Ohioans use drugs! It’s half of all Ohioans applying for these jobs.

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