U.S. Division of Transportation (DOT) insurance policies on drug testing truckers and different business drivers for marijuana are unnecessarily costing folks their jobs and contributing to provide chain points, a congressman stated in a letter to the top of the division on Monday.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) cited DOT information displaying that tens of hundreds of drivers are being disqualified due to stringent drug screening insurance policies round THC. He stated that whereas no person needs drivers impaired on the roads, there aren’t assessments that may detect energetic impairment—so persons are being penalized for utilizing hashish whereas off responsibility, days or even weeks earlier than they’re examined.
“These disqualifications deny folks the fitting to earn a dwelling, cut back the workforce when drivers are desperately wanted, and penalize folks of coloration and sufferers who legally use medical hashish,” he wrote. “This disaster have to be handled with urgency.”
The congressman instructed Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg that his division “ought to quickly reform necessities for testing drivers and returning them to service, in addition to develop an correct check for impairment.”
Whereas Buttigieg hasn’t particularly weighed in on DOT marijuana testing coverage, he did marketing campaign on legalizing hashish and decriminalizing different at the moment illicit medication whereas working for president in 2020.
Blumenauer stated that the statistics on drivers who’ve been disqualified over constructive THC assessments are troubling on their very own, however the “true impacts of this coverage are doubtless larger, on condition that many individuals will self-select out of the occupation figuring out the drug testing necessities.”
“Onerous necessities for returning to responsibility after a constructive check additionally imply most of those drivers by no means return to work. Of 119,000 drivers prohibited from driving over the previous three years, greater than half haven’t even tried to return. The Division of Transportation’s present insurance policies in direction of these drivers contributes to provide chain backlogs and delays in vital deliveries throughout the American economic system.”
Blumenauer stated throughout a press briefing on Monday that the federal authorities must “put sources behind arising with various strategies of figuring out impairment.”
“We’ve not been capable of have a full-throated analysis effort. We haven’t put the cash behind it,” he stated. “The federal authorities till not too long ago has interfered with analysis.”
For what it’s value, DOT did not too long ago suggest a brand new drug testing coverage that might have vital implications for employees who use marijuana off the job.
Present division coverage mandates urine testing, which advocates and consultants view as problematic as a result of THC metabolites can keep in an individual’s system for weeks after they use hashish. However the proposed rule change would permit saliva-based assessments as alternate possibility.
Relying on frequency of use, THC is usually detectable in saliva anyplace from one to 24 hours after use.
Additional, the DOT proposal says there can be a “4 nanogram per milliliter screening check cutoff for THC,” which “would detect use of marijuana whereas eliminating prospects of constructive assessments ensuing from passive publicity.”
“Up to now, 48 states have enacted legal guidelines that, to various levels, chill out their prohibitions in opposition to using marijuana,” the congressman’s new letter says. “Nonetheless, your division’s zero-tolerance coverage sweeps up drivers who have been unimpaired, drivers who haven’t used hashish for weeks and even months, and drivers who’ve used federally-legal CBD oils.”
DOT did situation a discover in 2020 clarifying that employees in safety-sensitive positions underneath its rules won’t be examined for CBD. Nonetheless, it urged warning in utilizing merchandise containing the hashish compound as a result of they’ll set off constructive drug assessments for marijuana.
“Blanket disqualifications are unjust, unfair, and trigger widespread financial and social injury,” Blumenauer, a co-chair of the Congressional Hashish Caucus, stated. “Hundreds of driving positions are unfilled, compounding our provide chain woes. Penalizing protected drivers who adjust to state hashish legal guidelines harms each the drivers and the provision chains they help.”
He added that punitive insurance policies round marijuana and drug testing have had a racially disparate affect, as folks of coloration are considerably extra prone to be focused by them despite the fact that there are comparable charges of hashish use throughout races.
“Paired with stringent drug testing necessities and inaccurate assessments, this implies numerous truckers of coloration are denied the fitting to earn a dwelling due to previous punishments for drug use, and face vital limitations to returning to service after a punishment,” the congressman stated. “Moreover, failing to account for state-legal medical marijuana prescriptions in sweeping prohibitions discriminates in opposition to sufferers regardless of compliance with their physician’s suggestions and their state legal guidelines.”
“As the USA continues to confront the provision chain disaster, your division ought to lead the hassle to analysis extra dependable hashish check choices and develop new instruments that keep away from sweeping up harmless drivers whereas additionally retaining our roads protected from those that are actually impaired,” he wrote.
Blumenauer stated that one potential car to advertise marijuana analysis can be his personal invoice, the Medical Marijuana Analysis Act, which cleared the Home final month.
“The federal authorities needs to be making it simpler for already-qualified drivers to remain within the occupation, not forcing them away. Outmoded and unfair federal drug insurance policies are out of step with actuality and straight contribute to the trucking scarcity disaster. Too lots of the 2.8 million Individuals who maintain business driver licenses are usually not working due to previous hashish assessments and the problem they face re-qualifying for responsibility. Getting these skilled, certified, and succesful drivers again on the highway will unsnarl provide chains quicker and extra effectively.”
“I’m very within the steps your division is taking to make sure these certified drivers have alternatives to return to work, no matter their previous hashish use,” the letter concludes. “Modernizing your division’s regulation of hashish use is vital to make sure those that need to drive can contribute to this effort. I look ahead to your partnership on this effort.”
Office drug testing points proceed to be raised, particularly as extra states transfer to legalize hashish in some type and lots of industries are dealing with workforce shortages.
For instance, appropriations laws and connected reviews handed by the Home final yr directed federal authorities businesses to rethink insurance policies that fireside staff for utilizing hashish in compliance with state legislation.
The White Home Workplace of Personnel Administration (OPM) not too long ago issued a memo to federal businesses that claims admitting to previous marijuana use shouldn’t mechanically disqualify folks from being employed within the federal authorities.
In February, a high Wells Fargo analyst stated that there’s one fundamental motive for rising prices and employee shortages within the transportation sector: federal marijuana criminalization and ensuing drug testing mandates that persist whilst extra states enact legalization.
The prior month, a coalition of greater than two dozen congressional Democrats filed invoice on selling office funding to fight local weather change, and so they need to enhance the workforce nationwide by defending folks in authorized marijuana states from being penalized as a result of federal drug testing insurance policies.
Learn the letter on DOT coverage on marijuana testing for drivers under:
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