As it stands, trucking is already a unique and challenging industry. It takes grit and resilience, as commercial truck drivers make the road, hotels and the limited space inside their vehicles their office and home. With legal cannabis laws continuing to spread across the country, and in turn more drivers using cannabis, the trends are leading to a labor shortage.
There was a 31% increase in truck drivers testing positive for cannabis in 2022 compared to 2021, nearly 41,000 truck drivers, according to a report compiled from data in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Drug & Alcohol (FMCSA) Clearinghouse, as reported by Transport Topics.
The report found that more than 100,000 truck drivers tested positive for cannabis since FMCSA opened the Clearinghouse on Jan. 6, 2020. Truck drivers who test positive for cannabis and other drugs are prohibited from driving and must enter a “return-to-work” process in order to return to their posts, which requires an additional drug test.
While the trucking industry is far from the only field that prohibits cannabis use, a significant portion of truck drivers have declined to return to work after testing positive for cannabis. Of the approximately 166,000 people who tested positive for a prohibited substance since 2020, about 91,000 have yet to enroll in the “return-to-work” process. Cannabis was by far the most common banned substance to show up on drug screenings.
This is especially problematic for the transportation sector, which has already faced a labor shortage. Once again, being a trucker is not easy, and outside of cannabis use, professional truck drivers have left the field in droves in search for less demanding and better paying jobs.
Federal law requires that commercially licensed drivers must undergo random drug screens for cannabis, which can detect the presence of the inert carboxy-THC metabolite in urine for weeks or even months after use. A report from the U.S. Department of Justice notes that this metabolite “only indicates that a particular substance is present in the test subject’s body tissue. It does not indicate abuse or addiction; recency, frequency, or amount of use; or impairment.”
Drug Tests Aren’t Reliable
It hearkens back to an ongoing puzzle surrounding cannabis legalization and impaired driving: Even though an individual may not be under the influence at the time, outdated testing standards for work and law enforcement are still unable to determine current intoxication.
NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano spoke on the issue, saying that the Transportation Department’s reliance on this outdated technology and these “discriminatory policies” is not in line with the modern-day world and contributes directly to the trucking shortage crisis. NORML has historically called for the use of performance testing technology, which would evaluate motor skill functions and compare current performance to baseline performance, instead of leaning on drug detection.
“Suspicionless marijuana testing in the workplace is not now, nor has it ever been, an evidence-based policy,” Armentano said. “Rather, this discriminatory practice is a holdover from the zeitgeist of the 1980s ‘war on drugs.’ But times have changed; attitudes have changed, and in many places, the marijuana laws have changed. It is time for workplace policies to adapt to this new reality and to cease punishing employees for activities they engage in during their off-hours that pose no workplace safety threat.”
Dan Horvath, vice president of safety policy for American Trucking Associations, told Transport Topics that the numbers are trending in the wrong direction, though accounting for legalization efforts across the country and when cannabis use is legal or not, he added that the trends are unsurprising.
The simple fact is not a thing has changed with regard to this DOT-regulated industry — specifically, CDL holders,” Horvath said.
The American Transportation Research Institute is researching the effects of cannabis decriminalization and legalization on the trucking industry, according to Vice President Jeff Short, and results are expected to be made public sometime later this year. Short said that research will focus on trends surrounding where cannabis is legal, how many people live in those states and the percentage of truck drivers that live in states with legal cannabis laws.
“We’re going into workforce implications, putting out a survey to safety executives, overall company executives, human resources executives to see what their experiences are with hiring and with maintaining the workforce with testing as well as how many drivers hired in certain states are having difficulties,” he told Transport Topics.
Short added that he cannot say why truck drivers are choosing not to return to work after failing drug tests, though he believes this research will shine a light on the topic.
“We are going to be asking trucking executives about that very thing, along with dozens of other questions,” Short said.
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