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Reclassifying cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the US Controlled Substances Act will not automatically amend federal drug testing standards for truckers and other federally contracted workers, according to recent comments from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Speaking before Congress, Buttigieg said that the 1988 drug testing regulations explicitly mandate certain employers to screen for cannabis, regardless of its placement in the CSA. “The rescheduling of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III … would not alter DOT’s [the US Department of Transportation’s] marijuana testing requirements with respect to the regulated community,” he said.
Federal law requires that commercially licensed drivers be subject to both pre-employment and random marijuana urinalysis testing, which screens for the presence of the inert carboxy-THC metabolite. This non-psychoactive metabolite can be detectable in subjects’ urine for weeks or even months following past exposure, long after any potential effects have worn off. According to data published in 2022 in the Canadian Journal of Public Health, employees who consume cannabis during their off-hours possess no greater risk of occupational injury than do those who abstain from marijuana altogether.
Since 2020, over 139,000 truckers have tested positive for past cannabis exposure. That total is far greater than the total number of failures for all other substances combined. Most of these drivers have refused to reapply for work in the industry, which has led to supply chain issues.
According to survey data compiled last year by the American Transportation Research Institute, 62 percent of representatives from motor carrier companies say that “changes were needed to federal drug policy rules in light of state-level legalization.”
Additional information is available from the NORML Fact Sheet, ‘Marijuana Legalization and Impact on the Workplace.’
