High time for employers to halt drug tests
With the legalization of marijuana use in some form in 23 states, and four states allowing recreational use, the argument is growing if employers should be in the business of demanding body fluids from their workers?
Now there’s one thing that needs to disappear along with the prohibition of marijuana: employee drug tests.
Privacy arguments aside — should employers really be in the business of demanding body fluids from their workers? — this testing is expensive and does not effectively screen for good employees. In fact, it probably does not effectively screen for drug users. Yet companies continue to drug-test potential hires, even in states where medical marijuana is legal.
Last month, two House bills were filed that could end the federal prohibition of marijuana, including one that would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act’s schedules and regulate it similarly to alcohol.