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.”
Matthew Jamie Howard
I agree that the use of marijuana on your off time should not be the cause of loosing your trucking career. Me personally have been dealing with the sap program for over a year now and it’s been giving me hell that no company would approve me for a rtd drug test to be eligible to get back on the road all over a pre employment thc failed drug test
Bee Henderson
First off Marijuana is not a drug it’s a plant and has been around for more than 10,000 years. There are too many idiots who wants to control our lives. Telling lies about roads being more dangerous when in fact it will not be more dangerous because some idiot said so. It’s about control and that’s it. No safety aspect at all. /
Fred Smith
From what I was just told the United States armed forces took it out of the testing so as far as safety concerned I would think have an access to rockets and missiles and hand grenade all sorts of weapons you look views don’t do it while you’re working. What you do on your own time with your own business
David Williams
Smoking have you more on point & skeptical.it helps with stress and that’s one thing driving causes.it will help with road rage.help you rest when you need to rest.but when you off you can drink alcohol? And let’s say you can do both while at work one or the other hands down witch one would cause way more deaths?bottom line
J. Cole
My word! If the rest of the world jumps off a cliff, you dope smoking jug heads will follow them, no doubt!!!
Nate Harris
Saying that people would “think it’s ok to consume marijuana while on the job” is an asinine statement made by an individual that’s clearly uneducated on the topic. With that line of thinking, the individual quoted in this article, drinks vodka while at work and drives home thinking its ok to do so. I doubt she does but its obvious she thinks that truckers that depend on their paycheck from the job they do aren’t going to follow DUI laws with Marijuana like they do Alcohol. Ignorance on her part at best. Since it’s implementation in January 2020 58% of drivers with violations in the Clearinghouse tested positive for Marijuana only, that’s 127,356 drivers. Most of which haven’t started the SAP process to return to work and instead took other jobs and will have their licenses downgraded in November probably never to return to the industry. An industry that complains daily about a lack of drivers. An industry that has resorted to begging that testing procedures be easier to get unqualified operators behind the wheel. So let’s talk about some other numbers that no one mentions. How many truckers, that tested positive for Marijuana after an accident, were actually found to have Marijuana in their trucks or on their person? Answer is less than 1%, the number is so low no one keeps track if it. Meaning the drivers that did test positive were not under the influence on the job but simply had metabolites still in their system. Only 6 states have NO legal THC program, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Indiana, and South Carolina. So 44 states have some sort of legal THC program, be it Medical, Recreational, or CBD only. Yet Federally it remains illegal. Marijuana needs to be scheduled the same as alcohol or Federal prohibition needs to be enforced like it used to be and only Medical Marijuana should remain.
Robert Richardson
The ata is not on our side for sure,they are only out for the mega carriers.
Derek
You can not take anything seriously that the ATA says. They do not represent thr trucking industry. They only represent the mega carriers. They will do or say anything to put a smaller business out of business.