Why more employers are opting out of testing for marijuana
Rapidly changing state laws about marijuana and a low number of eligible workers have caused a growing number of employers to no longer require applicants to pass a marijuana drug test in order to get the job, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
“The fast-changing legal landscape around cannabis is complicating employers’ decision about whether to test,” especially when many otherwise good hires are turned away due to marijuana use, the Post said.
Amber Clayton, senior director of Knowledge Center Operations at the Society for Human Resource Management, told the Post, “Employers are still figuring out, ‘How do we navigate these laws and still have the ability to employ people and keep people safe?’”
Denise Polliciella, the founder and an attorney at Cannabis Attorneys of Michigan, told CBS News that not hiring marijuana users leaves “a lot of very capable, very good employees on the sidelines when you should be giving them gainful employment because it’s not affecting their employment in any way.”
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Marijuana at work
Online work news platform Business said some employers believe getting rid of required marijuana drug tests could compromise workplace safety, since side effects of marijuana could include dizziness, drowsiness and fatigue, with more serious effects being disorientation or hallucinations.
“There are heavily regulated industries and certain professions (e.g., school bus driver, airline pilot, federal contractor, etc.) where job candidates and employees must be tested for drugs, and marijuana is on the list of no-go substances,” Business said.
Michigan ended marijuana testing for most state jobs this year, excluding “law enforcement officers, health care providers and employees operating heavy machinery,” per CBS News.
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Marijuana legalization
According to Pew Research Center, about 30% of U.S. adults believe marijuana should be legalized for medical use, while 59% said medical and recreational use.
Business said, “States must be listening to what the people want, because the District of Columbia, three territories and 37 states have legalized the use of marijuana, be it medically, recreationally or both.”
In Karger’s Medical Cannabis and Cannabinoids journal, research showed there are about 3.6 million legal medical cannabis patients alone.
The Post said some states have laws that protect workers’ use of marijuana while they’re on their own time and some employers are considering excluding THC from drug testing.
THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the major psychoactive component found in cannabis, according to the National Library of Medicine.
