A clear majority of truck drivers in the United States support easing cannabis laws and drug screening for marijuana, according to a new report from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI).
The report, “Impacts of Marijuana Legalization on the Trucking Industry,” found that 72.4% of freight drivers support “a loosening of marijuana testing and laws,” while 23.7% cited a belief “that personal rights should be respected while a driver is off-duty.”
The report also found that 50.2% of truck drivers surveyed stated that “leaving the industry to avoid drug testing was common or very common.”
The report was published amid an ongoing labor shortage in the trucking industry. In late 2022, the American Trucking Association (ATA) stated that the number of unfilled driver jobs stood at almost 78,000 and ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello projected that the number of unfilled jobs could jump to 160,000 if current trends continue.
“This is sort of a warning to the entire supply chain, to the motor carriers, to shippers, to everybody,” Costello said.
The report cited figures from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse (DACH) that found that more than half of all positive trucking industry drug tests are for marijuana metabolites.
A positive test “effectively removes a driver from the industry until a series of remedial steps are taken,” the report stated, adding that more than 100,000 drivers have tested positive and were removed from their position from 2020 to 2022.
The report did find that a slight majority of carriers are willing to hire drivers who have failed a marijuana test in the past and that 24.4% said they treat a failed cannabis test as less serious than a failed screening for drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine.
Part of the problem with cannabis testing is that tests can come back positive weeks after the person used cannabis. With harder drugs like cocaine or methamphetamines, a test can come out negative only a few days after use.
The result is that a positive test result for cannabis does not indicate that the person consumed cannabis in the last few days, and gives no indication if the person is impaired at the time of the test.
What do truck drivers think about cannabis legalization?
On May 30, 2023, Minnesota became the 23rd state to legalize recreational cannabis. With nearly two dozen fully legal cannabis states, there is a likelihood that impaired driving has increased, the report states. When asked if they believe that cannabis legalization has affected highway safety, 55.4% of respondents said they believe it has not made an impact, as opposed to 34.1% who said they believe it has.
The report also found that a clear majority of drivers - 66.5% - believe that cannabis should be legalized nationally.
“Most drivers just assume that as long as they are not high at work that they are ok. Just like alcohol. Once we educate them on the drug testing requirements, they are usually quite surprised, saying ‘I can walk in and buy it, but I can’t work for you if I use it?” the report stated.
The report states that if cannabis laws do not change on the federal level, “the trucking industry will continue to have thousands of drivers annually placed in prohibited status and will lose many others to occupations that do not test for marijuana use.”
Cannabis: Easily the most common reason for failed drug tests
According to the report, in the seven years since Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize adult-use cannabis, the percentage of positive tests that are positive for marijuana has risen from 67.7% in 2014 to 69.2% in 2021.
It also highlights that marijuana contributes to a higher percentage of positive pre-employment drug screening, as much as 75.4% of such positive tests in 2021. In contrast, only 59.2% of random drug tests came back positive for marijuana in 2021.
The report that's that “therefore, past use of marijuana - which may have been up to 30 days before the test - is filtering out a significant number of potential truck drivers from the industry. There is the potential that these drivers had last used marijuana prior to even deciding to become a truck driver.”
Is a better testing method needed?
A previous ATRI report Marijuana Legalization and Impaired Driving: Solutions for Protecting our Roadways,” found a pressing need for more robust data on the effects of marijuana-impaired driving, safety campaigns to mitigate driving while under the influence of cannabis, and better law enforcement tools to identify cannabis-impaired drivers.
What steps do drivers think need to be taken?
More than 65 percent of drivers stated that they believe that the industry should move away from a marijuana use test and instead use tests that measure impairment or test for same-day use.
And while 40.9% of carriers said they are “extremely concerned” that legalization results in more impaired drivers on the road, 62% said that they believe changes are needed for federal drug testing policy. Of these, 47% called for an impairment test, and 27.6% said that marijuana should be removed from Schedule 1 status.
According to the ATRI, there are two different pathways the federal government can take toward cannabis legalization.
“The first pathway, maintaining the current prohibition policy where marijuana remains a Schedule I drug, would continue the trend of removing thousands of drivers annually from the industry through positive tests for past marijuana use,” the ATRI said.
The second pathway described in the report is one in which the federal government eases restrictions on cannabis. This pathway would still require “the development of a nationally recognized marijuana impairment test and implement standards, as well as provisions that protect a carrier's ability to screen employees for drug use,” according to the ATRI
Upon release of the ATRI report, Minnesota Trucking Association President John Hausladen said “Minnesota recently joined the growing list of states legalizing recreational marijuana. This action underscores the critical need for tools to effectively determine marijuana impairment by current and prospective employees. As an industry committed to workplace and roadway safety, we owe it to ourselves and our families to make sure we can screen to maintain a clean and sober workforce.”
Why legalization doesn’t mean an end to drug tests at work
While cannabis may be more mainstream than ever before, in many jobs, screening for cannabis is still to be expected.
Protection that states have in place for medical cannabis patients doesn’t apply to “safety-sensitive” positions like truck drivers or firefighters.
These protections also don’t stop employers from banning cannabis in the workplace.
