There have been many stories in the news in the past several weeks about companies who are no longer testing potential employees for marijuana in their system. With so many jobs needing to be filled, many employers see no point in disqualifying potential workers simply because they have THC in their urine. This is especially true in areas where marijuana laws have been relaxed and regulated legalization has been implemented.
But it must be remembered that we are still in the beginning of this process. The amount of companies taking cannabis off their list of substances that are employment disqualifying is still small – so small that individual companies are making news and doing interviews with reporters. There is no real data as of yet on just how many businesses are taking this route, but it’s safe to say that the vast majority of companies that have tested for marijuana in the past are still doing so, even in states with adult use legalization in place.
This means employee drug testing is still big business across the U.S., for all the major illicit drugs, including cannabis. This also means that helping people pass a drug test is a huge market as well. Products like Quick Fix Synthetic Urine and Xstream urine are in great demand; Detox drinks for drug tests are also high in demand as recreational and medical marijuana consumers look for ways to avoid an awful choice: keep taking the safest, most effective medicine for their ailment or keep their job.
As laws relax, so too should employer standards when it comes to a medicine like cannabis. That’s the theory, and there are some signs that it is happening in practice. But we still have a long way to go before cannabis is treated in the same way as alcohol or legal prescription drugs that don’t cause on-the-job impairment.
In the final analysis, people should be judged by their employers on how well they do their job and their qualifications for that job, not what sort of chemicals are in their urine. One day subjects like this will be rarely talked about, but until then we must keep speaking out and letting employers know the truth about cannabis and that people shouldn’t have to choose between their health and their job.
Nice article! At Cal NORML we’re making employment rights legislation a priority; in the meantime most employers are free to stop testing for marijuana, not that it’s becoming more and more legalized.
I was terminated by my employer, AUTONATION, for having THC in my system after I was bullied and forced into workman’s compensation for recieveing a Bruise on my ankle. Even after my medical marijuana card was presented, I was marked non rehireable. My career in the industry was ruined. Autonation declares they would not discriminated against THC in the media but behind closed doors they discriminated and retaliated against medical conditions since it was a liability to them.