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yes I know, that's why I said "Saints or Liars" see my other posts on this thread
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I have never used alchohol or illegal drugs, but I'm sure I've coded on benadryl and many different prescription drugs before. And seriously, most developers I know have never written a line of code when not under the influence of caffeine.
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If tea contains caffeine then yes. I only drink tea, milk, or yoghurt when working.
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You know the situation.
You get am urgent support call on a weekend from a senior exec, but you're already on the 2nd or 3rd glass of wine.
So you (1) fire up the laptop, (2) connect to the VPN, (3) login, (4) bring up the IDE, (5) do a fix, (6) test it and (7) put it live.
If you can do steps 1 to 6, then step 7 probably isn't a problem!
Also applies to system changes, reboots, etc.
Of course, you check it all on Monday morning.... 
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I'm happy by the results (until now) because the majority of people related to coding (assumption for voters) use their brain for more than coding. But I'm sad because the figures for the minority are high (1/3).
To make it short for anyone who combines drinking and coding (including the ones who don't remember) I'll ask a very simple question: Will you ever trust a doctor who is under the influence of alcohol? As for drugs I don't see how and why people can deal and live with trash.
In any case I can accept any objection but I cannot understand it and support it.
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I was going to write something, but you said it all.
Pierre Boucher
'Bien souvent on se rend coupable en négligeant d'agir, et non pas seulement en agissant.'
- Marc Aurèle, empereur et philosophe romain.
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Well, the question left out a key quantifier. It just said 'drugs' and did not specify legal or illegal. I have a prescription medication that I take daily, so all the code I write for production is under the influence of drugs.
I read the question like a programmer. 
Also, you might not know it but you do trust doctors who are under the influence of alcohol. I used to work at a medical facility as a developer and there were times that a doctor was on call and had a glass or two of wine with dinner and got paged. It was kind of like the overweight cardiologists who told their patients to exercise and quit smoking... then went out and had a quick cigarette.
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Prescribed medication is not illegal drug (at least for me - sorry for that) since in my native language there are specific words for separating aspirin from ecstasy that are no synonyms. You probably don't know greek, but I'm sure that you're familiar with words like pharmaceutical (based on greek word pharmako) and narcotics (based on greek word narkotiko).
I also read the question as a programmer but as I explained my native language "pushed" me to accept or reject the use of word "drugs" for both pharma and narcotics and I kept narcotics in my mind.
Is your prescribed medication result any kind of inefficiency to perform successfully your daily tasks at work? If no (hopefully) then it's fine. If yes then it will be an interesting topic for discussing about the way people handle a case like this in their working environment and more importantly how working environment handles it.
There is no doubt that there are doctors like the one you describe, therefore allow me to rephrase my question: Will you ever trust a doctor who you know that is under the influence of alcohol?
modified 10-Dec-13 11:45am.
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No need to apologize. The question reads "under the influence of alcohol or drugs", it does not specify what sort of drugs, Scripted and Over-the-Counter medications versus narcotics. Aspirin and Ecstasy are both 'drugs' however one will get you hauled into jail a lot faster than the other. Yes, we can draw a conclusion about what the person who wrote the survey meant, but I'm just being pedantic.
Actually, for my prescribed meds, it is quite the opposite. If I don't take them there will be an inefficiency in performing daily tasks. On the other hand, many people do abuse it and doctors are watchful for that. Highly competitive people abuse it to improve their focus and get more work done. The same can be said for a medication like pseudoephedrine (Sudafed). While it is a good decongestant one of the reasons I have to sign my name every time I want to buy a box of it, is that people use it to make meth.
As for the last bit... would I ever trust a doc who I know is under the influence? That is a bit of a grey area. In a hospital? No. If I was backpacking, in a life threatening situation, hours from a proper medical facility and an inebriated doctor could potentially save my life?
Well, I'm going to die if I don't try. So why not try to survive?
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drdigit wrote: Prescribed medication is not illegal drug
Neither alcohol (at least in a big part of the world)
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I put it to you that comparing computer programming with the practise of medicine is an inappropriate comparison at best.
Have you ever seen a doctor that saved the current state of the patient, in case they did something foolish. Only to reload the previously saved state? Nah, me either. "Alt-F, Save-As 'patientPreAortaIncisionInCaseIDoSomethingDumb.human' " Try saving then restoring that.
Never seen a doctor with Ctrl-Z either. Seen dozens that wished they did. 
I'd consider it a reasonable comparison if the survey asked if the code had been written _and_ released while in an intoxicated state, but it doesn't.
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A doctor doesn't often get to debug and put out a service pack post-release.
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I work at home, I often work in the evenings. I sometimes work with a glass of wine or a beer to hand.
That's not the same as throwing together a quick untested fix in a drunken haze, and/or pulling the trigger on a major release when stoned out of one's mind.
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Right. The underlying need to get out more is part of the issue.
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Can't disagree with that. Send me money, and I won't have to work evenings any more 
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I find it very hard to believe that such a high percentage said No!!!! I find that highly unlikely. 
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Why? The current ratio is one in four of working while on some kind of drug.
Look around in your company. Are there more under drugs in your environment?
For a permanent setup, this ratio would surprise me for professionals.
Cheers
Andi
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They prevaricate. Perhaps you needed to ask whether a holiday or employee departure party was involved.
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I made a couple of unspoken assumptions for my no:
1) Prescription drugs that do not impair oneself do not count (for example Prilosec a prescription drug for reflux doesn't count).
2) Same thing with over the counter medication. Keep in mind that medications like Benodryl do impair you so they count as a yes. I don't tend to get sick and when I do I don't take anything that would impair me. I have to drive 1.5 hours to work each way so I can't take anything that would impair me.
3) I do not count caffeine (yes that one is debatable; I am just listing my assumption).
4) Under the influence in the context of alcohol requires you to be impaired. So for most adults a single beer or glass of wine will not put you under the influence.
Now if the question included being impaired by lack of sleep then it would have been a definite yes.
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I guess its fair to ask, what is drunk! I am sure there aren't that many who have been completely stoned and very drunk, but I am sure there must be many who have a a couple of beers, or a small toke!!. As you state, it depends on how much each individual is affected by different levels, and at what point it impairs you significantly.
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Not only was it meant for production, but it's still running there ... 10 years later. That was done three companies ago, but as with some other comments, it is so cryptic that nobody knows how to change it. If it's not broken, why fix it?
My plan is to live forever ... so far so good
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I quit drinking and then landed a career in coding.
"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence."
<< please vote!! >>
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Well, under the influence of alcohol and drugs, it sometimes became good for production. If you were very amazing when some problems were not ended because of unknown errors for several days, clear you brain with a little alcohol and think more carefully what is the problem.
Then sometimes, solution appeared. 
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The general concept of getting some distance from the problem and then - after letting go - get back to it with a clear mind is a very good solution, but creating this distance by using alcohol bears the risk of addiction. It should not be the usual way you "solve" your problems. Instead you could try to literally run away from them by running some miles or cook a good meal or do kung fu or meditaion or read a book, etc...
Just be careful.
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Thank you for your advice.
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