{"id":51294,"date":"2017-08-06T13:47:34","date_gmt":"2017-08-06T13:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/?p=51294"},"modified":"2022-11-30T11:35:11","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T16:35:11","slug":"should-i-drop-testing-for-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/blogs\/should-i-drop-testing-for-marijuana\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I Drop Testing for Marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>&gt;&gt;&gt; Many employers that currently have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/employer-programs\/\"><strong>drug testing programs<\/strong><\/a> may be asking the question \u2013 should I stop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/drug-test-for-marijuana\/\"><strong>drug testing for marijuana<\/strong><\/a>.&nbsp; There are several other questions that need to be answered first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Is my company required to have <strong>DOT-regulated drug testing<\/strong>?&nbsp;&nbsp; Then testing for marijuana is required.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Is my company participating in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/employer-programs\/\"><strong>drug-free workplace program<\/strong><\/a> due to our company receiving Federal contracts or grants?&nbsp; In that case, if you are drug testing, then marijuana must be included.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Is my company participating in a State drug free workplace program that gives my company a discount on workers compensation insurance programs?&nbsp; Most of these programs require testing for marijuana.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Is my company drug testing employees due to a contract with another company?&nbsp; Many times the substances to be tested for are spelled out and marijuana is required.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Are there safety sensitive positions in my company?&nbsp; Impaired employees can cause accidents.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What does the law in my state say about medical marijuana? Important decisions to be made.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What does the law in my state say about recreational marijuana? &nbsp;&nbsp;Important decisions to be made.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What is my company position on having employees report to work possibly under the influence of marijuana?&nbsp; This is perhaps the most important question and perhaps should be answered first.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You can see from the above questions that the decision to perhaps stop drug testing for marijuana is a complex decision.&nbsp; The decision should come from the top; what does executive management say about this.&nbsp; It is also important that a company attorney be consulted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drug use is a significant threat to workplace health, safety and productivity. Safety must be considered in any discussion in regards to drug testing.&nbsp; Productivity issues should also be considered.&nbsp; Compliance with regulations or contract obligations will be equally important to your decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first step for any employer is to take a look at your current <strong>drug-free workplace policy.<\/strong>&nbsp; Does this policy accurately reflect the beliefs of the company owner, CEO or executive management? &nbsp;&nbsp;If the company does not have a drug free workplace policy, they need one right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps your company will accept medical marijuana as valid and not have an issue employing medical marijuana users.&nbsp; If this is the case, know your state law on medical marijuana \u2013 is smoking marijuana allowed; it is not in several states that allow medical marijuana.&nbsp; Positive drug tests for marijuana may not be present in some of the other ways that medical marijuana is consumed.&nbsp; Also, important is to verify an employees\u2019 medical marijuana card or letter of authorization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the above situation for medical marijuana, if you stop testing for marijuana; you will risk any of your employees coming to work under the influence of marijuana and potentially expose your company to liability.&nbsp; Safety and productivity are issues that you must be concerned about.&nbsp; In any case regarding medical marijuana, before taking adverse action against an employee for a positive marijuana drug test; caution and discussion among upper management is absolutely necessary.&nbsp; Consulting legal counsel would also be a good idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Regarding recreational marijuana as of August 2017, there are eight states and the District of Columbia that have adopted laws legalizing marijuana for recreational use.&nbsp; These are Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, California, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada.&nbsp; It is these states that employers must make some very tough decisions.&nbsp; The decision about allowing employees to come to work potentially under the influence of marijuana must be made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bottom line \u2013 employers must make hard decisions and implement written policies regarding these decisions.&nbsp; Education and training is critical to make sure all employees, management and human resource officials are consistently following these policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&gt;&gt;&gt; Many employers that currently have drug testing programs may be asking the question \u2013 should I stop drug testing for marijuana.&nbsp; There are several other questions that need to be answered first. You can see from the above questions that the decision to perhaps stop drug testing for marijuana is a complex decision.&nbsp; The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":53234,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"51223,54885,51535,51391,50876,51279","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}