WASHINGTON — Some truck drivers are urging the Biden administration to approve reclassifying marijuana to a Schedule III drug, but employers that fear safety would decline and put trucking companies at risk are pushing back.
Only a fraction of the more than 20,000 comments filed so far in the rulemaking, published in May by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Drug Enforcement Administration, are from truck drivers. (The comment period ends July 22.) But so far, they overwhelmingly — and anonymously — favor reclassification.
“As a truck driver in the United States I would like to be able to use marijuana on my time off just the same as any driver can come home and drink alcohol on their time off,” stated one commenter.
“I believe it is unfair that I can lose my job and my license if I have used marijuana and a month later I can still lose my job if I come out ‘dirty’ in a random drug test. The statistics are there and proven that alcohol is the leading cause of death in car accidents compared to nearly zero percent with marijuana.”
Another driver commented: “We can go have drinks after we get done from a long day (partaking in something that is known to cause death and serious injuries when incoherent) but we can’t smoke something that has medical benefits, something that will help truckers sleep better at night, deal with pain from being behind the wheel and [from] basic physical activity from the job, and deal with stress anxiety of the job and being away from home.”
A CDL holder who claimed to also be a driver trainer said safety concerns raised by the American Trucking Associations, including the risk that impaired truck drivers operating undetected on the nation’s roadways would increase, are valid.
However, “de-scheduling would not be equal to it being ok for drivers to use cannabis while actively working,” the commenter said. “I would expect my drivers to not drink alcohol at work, take NyQuil before a shift or a prescription that would interfere with driving, or get behind the wheel with lack of sleep — and the same would apply to those who take cannabis.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended reclassifying marijuana – currently a Schedule 1 substance along with LSD and heroin – to DOJ last year, after HHS determined that marijuana has a “relatively lower level of abuse compared to drugs currently scheduled in Schedules I and II and its evaluation that marijuana may lead to moderate or low physical dependence and has a low likelihood of psychic dependence.”
However, ATA pointed out that current DOT drug and alcohol testing requirements are limited in their testing authority by HHS, which allows regulated employers to test only for those drugs listed in Schedule I or II.
Therefore, without providing an exception for truck-driver testing, rescheduling the drug without could lead to more highway deaths, according to ATA – particularly given that close to 60% of all positive employer drug tests were pegged to marijuana, based on recent federal data.
Regulatory carve-out needed?
Janet Kornmann, owner of KorManagement Services LLC, a drug and alcohol screening consultancy, agrees with ATA that there should be a “safety carve out” to allow HHS to continue to test for marijuana for those working in certain industries, such as trucking.
“These safety-sensitive employees have been subject to testing for marijuana and other drugs since shortly after catastrophic accidents caused by marijuana use occurred in the mid- and late-1980s,” Kornmann stated in comments filed in the rulemaking.
“My concern is that if marijuana rescheduled as a Schedule 3 drug … it will give [those who use it] the false pretense that the drug is okay to use anywhere anytime. If that person works in a safety-sensitive position where they can harm themselves, other employees or the public this may become an issue as this drug does affect response time and critical thinking.”
David Gregory
All companies will still test for Marijuana drivers will be fired if using it legal or not just like alcohol
Bryan Miller
The ATA needs to be called out for what they are a voice against the Americans that choose to be truckers in support of the corporate greed that makes them speak. If we could get special interest groups like this out and replaced by a group like owner operator’s then we could have a meaningful conversation.
Victor
First, you chose this job knowing the limitations of it. The idea of having an airline pilot, locomotive engineer or any other dangerous job using pot and potentially being high on the job would be abhorrent to the public. So why should truck drivers be different?
Second, I make my first comment because, despite the medical benefits of marijuana that I’ve witnessed first hand, we all know that people will abuse it. People do abuse it already. People drink and drive. They also smoke and drive (Or however they consume it.). It is dangerous regardless of what size vehicle they’re in. As such, driving while impaired, which will happen no matter what the laws say, is dangerous and can be deadly. Which leads to my third point….
Third, for now instead of worrying about re-classifying marijuana, there needs to be a concerted effort to come up with a way that being under influence of marijuana can be detected in the field similar to how you can do drunk driving tests. I know that, at one time, there was a prototype for a breathalyzer for pot usage being tested. Without an effective method to determine field sobriety from drug usage, the testing that is used now is flawed in that it is too broadly based on the time frame of usage. If I go on a vacation for 3 weeks, smoke a joint in the first week and don’t use anymore for the remainder of the vacation, I can still show that usage when I return to work despite the fact that there is absolutely zero impairment at the time of testing all those weeks later. How is that really a legitimate test?
Finally, there are many medical benefits to marijuana. My stepson uses it for his anxiety. He’s a Type 1 diabetic and, prior to him starting to use an insulin pump, he had a hard time maintaining his blood sugar levels. When he’d start to run short on insulin before his next prescription refill, he’d get extremely anxious about running out and getting sick enough to have to go to the hospital. He almost died once because of that. It terrifies him and marijuana helps to keep him calmed down. With the pump, he isn’t as stressed and doesn’t use marijuana as much now. And that’s just one of millions of examples.
Do I want stoners running all over the country in trucks? Nope but I also don’t see why a person can’t practice some personal responsibility with weed the same way they have to with alcohol. Weed isn’t going away. People need to realize that. The best thing to do is embrace is it responsibly rather than make it a stigma. If you’ve got joint pain like I do from being overweight from sitting behind the wheel of a truck for several million miles and decades, a little pain relief besides Tylenol might not be so bad…….as long as you do it responsibly and make sure you have taken enough rest time to get the effects out of your system. But we can’t do that because of the testing regimen.
Rand Bruso
Since there are field sobriety tests for cannabis, using it during down time should be one’s own business.
Rand
Since there are field sobriety tests for cannabis, using it during down time should be one’s own business.
John P Johnson
Funny most driver smoke and honestly a weed smoker is a better diver then most by far Funny how a people come steal a land then because the indigenous people of the land smoke weed you make illegal Bronze Cooper colored falsely being called black that’s how low this government of immigrants are the hide behind words like safety FOH
Stephen Webster
No we need to keep the current rules and increase truck drivers wages instead
Rick
You want to risk to loose everything that you own to smoke pot while being a truck driver if you get in fatality. And go to prison too. Stick with alcohol. Or find another job!!!!!