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Tough love from the DOT
The federal Department of Transportation today affirmed that the recent approved marijuana legalization initiatives in Colorado and Washington State will not change their policies regarding marijuana. Marijuana use, whether for medical reasons or recreational enjoyment, is still technically under federal law and that is what the DOT will abide by. From the DOT Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy and Compliance:
We have had several inquiries about whether these state initiatives will have an impact upon the Department of Transportation’s longstanding regulation about the use of marijuana by safety‐sensitive transportation employees – pilots, school bus drivers, truck drivers, train engineers, subway operators, aircraft maintenance personnel, transit fire‐armed security personnel, ship captains, and pipeline emergency response personnel, among others.
We want to make it perfectly clear that the state initiatives will have no bearing on the Department of Transportation’s regulated drug testing program. The Department of Transportation’s Drug and Alcohol Testing Regulation – 49 CFR Part 40 – does not authorize the use of Schedule I drugs, including marijuana, for any reason.
Therefore, Medical Review Officers (MROs) will not verify a drug test as negative based upon learning that the employee used “recreational marijuana” when states have passed “recreational marijuana” initiatives.
We also firmly reiterate that an MRO will not verify a drug test negative based upon information that a physician recommended that the employee use “medical marijuana” when states have passed “medical marijuana” initiatives.
If you work at a transportation job that requires federally mandated drug testing, the fact that your state has legalized marijuana doesn’t mean you are allowed to test positive for it. The fact that medical marijuana or recreational marijuana may be legal under state law doesn’t matter as far as the DOT is concerned. The current rules remain unchanged.
Before partaking in legal marijuana in either of these two states, it would be wise to make sure it will not interfere with your employment.
I think it is interesting that a month after the election the only guidance we have received so far from the federal government regarding state legalization efforts has been from agencies only tangentially involved. At this point the Department of Justice has still provide no indication for how it will deal with the new state laws.
Photo by cuellar under Creative Commons license.
4 Comments
Do they also have an alcohol policy?
I’m assuming that they haven’t figured out what to do yet. The logical next step to start resolving the contradictions would be to get marijuana off of Schedule 1. If it were Schedule 2 that would allow for medical marijuana at least.
I’m sure they do, but you don’t come up positive for THC.
You would only be tested for alcohol if you where involved in a accident.
But random drug tests only nail you for illegal substances, per the Feds.
Even if the DOT accepted state legality, the biggest problem for collision forensics workers is how long marijuana shows up in a blood panel… Which is going to wreak havoc in accident investigations for a long, long time until testing improves: two weeks after firing a bong over the weekend, you will still test as positive for marijuana use. Until analysis technology improves to the point where they can tell the difference between someone who’s high right now and someone who was high last month, drug testing for marijuana is going to sweep with too wide a broom.
The simplest solution is also the one with the biggest bugaboo, which is to ignore what may be dissolved in a driver’s blood stream, and focus entirely on the actual level of impairment. Due to chronic back pain, I go through a half-dozen Norco tablets a day*; I haven’t driven “legally” for years because of this: in theory, I am always ripped to the tits on hydrocodone. Never mind that Norco (or Vicodin) don’t work on my head in the slightest, if I had to piss in a jar for the cops, I would be nailed for DUI/DWI.
Changing the policy will never happen, because urine/blood analysis is quite the big industry. It doesn’t matter you were able to walk a straight line backwards while reciting the alphabet in reverse and juggling five chainsaws, you had something naughty in your system, and that’s the only litmus that counts in court.
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*To cut off those inclined to suggest I smoke up instead of eating pills, the answer is no. I’ve tried. For me, marijuana as a painkiller is utterly useless: it just plain doesn’t work… Unless the idea is to get stoned enough that you don’t care about the amount of pain you’re in.