The US Department of Transportation has just announced that despite any state regulations that have been put in place, marijuana use, regardless of whether it’s medicinal or recreational, is still strictly prohibited. So even if a driver is currently in Colorado or Washington, the two states that have legalized recreational use of marijuana, if they’re caught in possession, or under the influence, they will still be prosecuted.
Director of the Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy and Compliance for the USDOT, Jim Swart, issued a notice on Monday, December 3rd stating in no uncertain terms that “marijuana remains a drug listed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act” and that “[the DOT] does not authorize the use of Schedule I drugs… for any reason.” It is therefore still illegal, regardless of what state law might say.
This notice was released just before Representative Reid Ribble of Wisconsin proposed a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would require the USDOT to make hair drug testing federally mandated, replacing the more common urine screening. Hair testing is much more difficult to tamper with and can detect drug use over the past several months while urine testing can only be used to show drug use from the past few days.
Some companies already use hair testing in addition to urine testing. C.R. England adopted hair testing after they ran a pilot program which found that drug tests were three times more likely to come back positive when hair testing was used. Other companies that have adopted hair testing include Schneider, J.B. Hunt, Gordon Trucking, and Roehl Transport.
Swart closed his DOT notice with a message to the public; “We want to assure the traveling public that our transportation system is the safest it can possibly be.”
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Sources: thetrucker, etrucker, overdriveonline
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Joseph says
Well… duh. Who would think otherwise? Alcohol use is legal in all states but not in motor vehicles. Why would pot be? For medicinal purposes or not it still affects your ability to drive and make rational decisions.
Roy Drumm says
Whens the last time you heard of a driver killing someone from smoking a joint…
Alcohol is much more dangerous as far as someone driving any type of vehicle…
Look how many lives have been taken in traffic accidents involving alcohol….but yet you can stop anywhere and buy a can of beer or whiskey and drive all day if you can manage to stay in control..
Marrijanna is harmless…those that have never used it have no idea what they are talking about when they call it a. DRUG….LOL…its a natural grown herb…
Andrew says
Driving under the influence of any drug that impairs your ability to drive should be illegal.
I don’t agree with the idea of using hair testing to punish people for doing something legal.
If there was a way to test for alcohol use in the past few months should that be a mandatory
test that would affect your employment and possibly put you in jail?
Ed Webe says
Unfortunately THC can stay in your system for up to 8 weeks so even if legalized for recreational use in all 50 states we would still fail drug screens if we used it. There is no reliable test to determine if the use was 15min before an accident or 3 weeks. Meanwhile you can drink yourself stupid every night and its out of your system by morning..most times.
Floyd says
Weed stays in your system for 30 days or longer if you are an everyday smoker, I think weed should be treated like alcohol , don’t drink or smoke and drive, if you do the penalty should be the same
robert says
We can not look away from the impaire litigation, let face it if there is a shortage of driver there will be more to come as baby boomer like myself retired with great pleasue and sit behind my computer and see these companies having safety problems and crahes.
Fatigue , booze and overwork and on top of everything more regulations perhaps DOT officers will be out of work too in the future.
Kevin says
What a load of horses&*t. I worked over the road driving everything from sedans to big box trucks for 7 years. Got two speeding tickets (Wis & TX) with no accidents, doing 80K-100K miles per year. And I was stoned almost the entire time. But since I got my CDL, and with the increased restrictions, and the stress from other drivers out there, I noticed a sharp increase in my frustration levels to the point of anger much of the time when I never smoked any weed. So I stopped driving Class A and will be returning to work in Hospitality. I agree with Andrew…what’s next? The only people who condemn weed are people who are some weak minded they couldn’t handle an aspirin while driving. If you really want to get safe, drivers should be forbidden to get all hopped up on caffeine which actually lowers your threshold for patience in traffic. And road rage is far more dangerous than a relaxed state of mind. Go ahead…follow the concurrent lines of increases in road rage incidents and the growth of Starbucks.
Techslave says
Money money money. It is all about money. The war on drugs and this stuff about making the roads safe for everyone is a bunch of propaganda and it also makes more government jobs.
Consider this. If you are a driver who has a drink when you are at home then 2 days later you go back to work and get tested for drugs and alcohol in your system you will pass the test. That makes sense right? Two days after a drink of alcohol you should not still be impaired right? But let’s say 3 weeks before you were home in your home state of washington and you smoked a joint recreationally where it is legal to do so in your home. That same drug test will now cause you to lose your job. Remember it has been three weeks since you smoked anything but it stays in your blood and shows up on a test despite the fact you are not in any way impaired or unsafe to drive. They’ve now put you on unemployment for the rest of your life based on false propaganda.
Kevin says
I agree with Kevin What a load of horses&*t. I have Driven commercial trucks for over 25 years even though I was not stoned and do not smoke Marijuana or do any other drugs other then the ones that are perscibed by my DOCTOR. When you are a truck driver you have to be relaxed when DRIVING a BIG RIG because of the work load and schedules you have to meet and the STRESS of the MORTORING PUBLIC out on the roads. They can not even drive there own cars even when they are not DRUNK or STONED. I think COMMERCIAL TRUCK DRIVERS should go to there DOCTORS and be monitored on the drugs the doctor perscibes to him or her for stress or for what ever other reason. You can have a heart attact and cause a accident with or without taking any MEDICATION only GOD knows when that might happen.
Kevin says
I am a city driver one day I had a very bad day out on the road and I was STRESSED OUT. I came home to get some rest I had a very bad headach and could not get any rest. I had asked my room mate to retreive me a EXTRA STRENGTH TYLENOL out of the med. cabinet for me she had grab her TYLENOL 3s by mistake not knowing I took it. The next morning my company sent me for a RANDOM DRUG TEST 5 days later the company DOC. told me I had tested POSTIVE for OPIATES. I came home and asked my roommate dose TYLENOL have OPIATES in it that is when she told me she might have grabed her perscibed TYLENOL’S by mistake. I told my company of 14 years what had happened and they FIRED me. DO YOU THING THEY SHOULD HAVE FIRED ME? Please Responed THANK YOU
Furbiscuit says
I have major issues with hair testing. Despite what the article said, there are ways to manipulate it. Length and location of hair being the most common. Blood testing is by far the accurate system used to determine whether or not someone is impaired.
This is proposed law is NOT about impairment. This legislation is about penalizing certain people for a chosen lifestyle. It comes down to if you do a specific lifestyle choice (whether legal or illegal) some politician will use it as a stepping stone to say you are not a fit member of society and should be penalized. Sick of their crap, sick of politics, and sick of some jerk saying what I can and can’t do in my own home on my downtime.
For the record, I’m severly drunk right now. I refuse to drive anywhere even after 1 beer, and my next load out is not due for pickup for 4 more days. Guess it should be illegal for me to get drunk on my first hometime in 2 months. Best part is that I don’t smoke weed, but I’ll fight for everyone to do what they want in their own home if they aren’t endangering anyone else.
Kaiyla says
Kevin, you have to watch what you touch. I live in California, and if I so much as even smell marijuana I leave immediately. I can’t be around the stuff, it smells terrible and affects my asthma. And that’s why I really hate marijuana because people have no common courtesy and expect us to deal with their medical use… Whatever, you’re at a bloody bar, there’s no reason for you to be using marijuana for medical usage, not at a bloody bar, and sharing the bloody pipe. You have got to be kidding me.
Me myself, I think marijuana use should stay illegal. And the only real use of it is means that doesn’t involve smoking the filth. I know the medical studies, I’ve seen them. I graduated from the University of Florida and there alone I read all about how marijuana is so good…. But the uses were for ointments and pills or the such. Smoking it causes cancer. The smoke itself can cause allergic reactions, or as me, I can’t even breathe.
You wanna smoke it, go home and do it in your house. Don’t subject me to it. Please.
Kaiyla says
I also don’t care. I’m relaxed on the road. I enjoy my job. I love to drive. I don’t get stressed. I just go with the flow. Relax, take up yoga, exercise, eat right, and everything will be fine. You’re only stressing because you let stress get to you.
chuck says
Why don’t they do it just like drinking and driving?You know, they see you swirving or driving in an unsafe maner, then give them the old stick both arms striaght out close your eyes and touch the tip of your nose test and so on.
Hellbilly says
The argument that pot is a herb not a drug is wrong. Opium and the coca plant are “herbs” grown right in the ground. They make heroine and cocaine so why not legalize these two as well? We all know the effects these 2 drugs can have on us so we choose not to use them even though they grow from the earth. Certainly you can make the argument that they are cut quite a few times before you would get ahold of them but in there raw form its no more then a plant. If you believe that rolling 80,000 lbs down the road while under the influence of ANY mind altering substance you are in the wrong business! Imagine being in Chicago, Atlanta, Newark or any other big city at rush hour and your reactions have slowed down because of the joint you fired up. Kudos to the d.o.t. for finally doing something right and keeping this crap out of the truck!
Lowcountrytrucker says
The thing I find funny is, Pot is a Schedule I Controlled Substance. Cocaine is a Schedule II Controlled Substance. So what they’re saying is. Pot is a worst drug than cocaine…..LOL
Matt Lee says
If you can’t be responsible enough to control your habits while operating an 80,000 lb vehicle then don’t drive! There is a time and place for everything… I.e. after your shift is over or when you are at home. I don’t condone driving intoxicated at any point, but to reprimand me over a non work related issue is truly proposterous! If you don’t know what a drug is let me explain: it is a chemically altered substances which MUST BE MANUFACTURED! Coca leaf is not cocaine until you process it into a drug, liquor must be manufactured,your pulls you get from your doctor are drugs, some of the best might I add, tested and proved! You drop a seed in the ground and it grows without care or concern without tampering with it in any way… Are cotton and corn listed as drugs? Are you addicted to shoppin? Are you addicted to eating? Might be but they sure alter the body and thought process! It’s a shame what trucking has come to… Need good drivers well leave the good ones alone who exercise good judgement and do things in their proper place and time