A troubling rise in truck drivers failing a high number of marijuana drug tests has industry officials concerned about highway safety.
The recent release of a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse summary report indicates that drug screenings saw a 13 percent rise in positive tests. More than 87,000 truckers suffered at least one alcohol or drug violation. Approximately 17,500 regained “not-prohibited from driving status” following the red flag. Drivers can return to duty after passing subsequent testing. However, a reported 52,691 have not even begun the return-to-duty process and upwards of 70,000 CDL-holder are sidelined under “prohibited driving status,” according to the report.
“The greater prevalence of drug testing violations is concerning and jeopardizes the safety of our roadways,” American Trucking Associations spokesman Sean McNally reportedly said. “In light of states’ continuing liberalization of marijuana laws, we encourage the federal government to increase attention on research on marijuana impairment, develop a national enforceable impairment standard, and look at ways to maintain appropriate levels of highway safety.”
The Clearinghouse report bears out the ATA spokesman’s concerns that legalization of previously controlled substances in some states has become something of a slippery slope. The hard data compiled through the first eight months of 2021 highlights the sharp rise in failed drug tests due to the presence of marijuana.
- Marijuana: Increased from 18,252 to 21,438.
- Cocaine: Increased from 5,233 to 5,913.
- Methamphetamines: Increased from 3,379 to 3,526.
- All 14 drug panels: Increased from 35,252 to 39,785.
The Clearinghouse has recorded 95,740 failed drugs tests since it began in January 2020. Of all truck driver violations, failed drugs account for approximately 82 percent. Other violations were largely due to spot alcohol incidents and truckers declining to submit to testing. Marijuana continues to rank as the leading cause of failed screenings, accounting for 53 percent of all testing violations. However, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety conducted a survey in June that produced murky data regarding the link between the legalization of marijuana and highway accidents.
“The combined effect of legalization and retail sales was a statistically significant 5.9 percent increase in injury crash rates and a nonsignificant 3.8 percent increase in fatal crash rates. The effects of legal marijuana use and sales on injury crash rates ranged from a 7 percent decrease to an 18 percent increase. The effects on fatal crash rates ranged from an 8 percent decrease to a 4 percent increase,” the study reportedly concluded.
Upwards of 36 states and the District of Columbia have legalized or decriminalized marijuana to some extent. Truckers should be keenly aware that the U.S. Department of Transportation considers it a controlled and illegal substance. Professionals drivers can be required to undergo marijuana testing and refusals carry consequences that may include getting sidelined.
Sources: ttnews.com, businessinsurance.com
I think a lot of this cools be contributed to the sale and use of the CBD products that can be purchased in most truck stops. Traces of THC can be found in some of these products regardless of what they tell you.
Need a better method of testing cuz when u smoke weed on your own time you can go work days or weeks later and still test positive..its wrong alcoholics can drink all nite and pass breathalyzer 8. Hrs later..
I agree, and mmj doesn’t leave you with a hangover or any other impairment once it wears off—unlike alcohol.
I lost my CDLs 9/30 by failing a drug test for marijuana. I have never done any illegal drugs and the only thing I can come up with is I changed my Group company about two weeks be fore the test and didn’t realize their’s had a small amount of THC which I normally watch out for. Arkansas law says I have to take a substance abuse program at $600-$1000, which I can’t afford, or wait five years to get them back. I’m 69 years old. Five years from now I probably won’t be able to drive semis. These type situations are very unfair for someone like me that did this by accident
Contact SAP Charles Erby in Atlanta GA. (404-641-6816) He assists drivers throughout the US to get their Clearinghouse updated from prohibited to active w a 6 step process for an affordable price. Due to COVID, all assessments are online and you are not alone. There are many drivers going thru this process as essential employees during this time w a huge shortage for moving freight.
The next statistic I’d like to see is the increase of truck accidents due to all these companies having to put inexperienced/incompitenced drivers behind the wheel.
Hell yeah
I don’t trust any of these govt. funded investigative companies. As it has been shown as of lately, govt. influence and political narratives are to influential.
The boogey man is who ever the govt. decides it to be in order to fit their agenda !! There are so many mis truths out there, I find it hard to believe any thing.
Screening for marijuana is an anachronism. What one does on the weekends, well over 12 hours before getting behind the wheel, does not endanger anyone.
Your statement is wrong. What you do before you drive does still effect others. Don’t believe me ask the Walmart driver that killed all those people and is now in jail. No drugs or alcohol were in his system.
Are you talking about the guy that hit Tracy Morgan? Aka the same guy who drove his personal car like 12 hours to the yard before driving his truck for another 10 or so? Someone sleep deprived is hardly a fair comparison to someone who had a joint two days ago and has properly rested. Idiot.
Contact SAP Charles Erby in Atlanta GA. (404-641-6816) He assists drivers throughout the US to get their Clearinghouse updated from prohibited to active w a 6 step process for an affordable price. Due to COVID, all assessments are online and you are not alone. There are many drivers going thru this process as essential employees during this time w a huge shortage for moving freight.
Are you saying that no drugs or alcohol were found in his system and *that* was a contributing factor to his accident?
Perhaps the key words here are “murky data”. Do these fools not realize that using marijuana should not be correlated to the cause of accidents. Depending on a variety of factors, one can test positive for THC 10 weeks after last use. I know surgeons, attorneys. teachers and a host of other professionals that use marijuana. This doesn’t mean they can’t perform at 100% the following day. Maybe their time could be better utilized in studying the effects of non-English speaking-reading drivers whose last experience in the transportation industry was driving a donkey cart in Somalia or Ukraine? Please tell me how you get a CDL without a lick of English. Until companies like Swift etc. that hand out CDL’s like candy at Halloween are held accountable, don’t talk about marijuana use in truck drivers!
This whole cannabis subject, (marijuana is the old, dated term given to Mexican Americans to vilify something else, once alcohol was legalized), and commercial driving needs an overhaul. Testing for a fat soluble substance which can remain in ones system for weeks afterwards is not only foolish, but completely inaccurate regarding ones ability to safety operate a vehicle, (commercial or otherwise). More accurate testing methods are being developed as we speak, to allow commercial drivers to consume cannabis legally, and help deal with the stress of driving, family obligations, etc.
Cell phone usage, pharmaceutical drug use, inattention, alcohol, etc. are far more likely to cause accidents & fatalities.
You need to be able to test that they are high or have just smoked. What you did on your time off is irrelevant. No I don’t want you smoking a joint in your car then getting in your truck and driving! If you smoked on Sunday watching the 1pm football game and smoked nothing afterwards. I have no problem with that.
I’ve got a million miles never failed a random got laid off cause I got COVID in July 2020 .was off for what 6 months or so Walmart calls me in to go to there orientation I’d did some blow 8 days prior didn’t get the job 10 days later call to tell me I failed there drug test and my Cds”s suspended.so I didn’t get hired before the test came back dirty.I personally that’s a bunch of shit !I got zero dings on my cdl it’s perfect!no dirty tests or missed a day of work in 5 years or ever been late ! I see non speaking English drives crashed all over the road !they squat when they drive there using there phone s 24 seven ! Yup butt I’m sidelined .!!
Most people can drive (cars, trucks, whatever) perfectly fine with Marijuana or Cannabis stored in their fat cells and/or freshly consumed. If you’ve tried it and find you had trouble driving that way, then acknowledge that that’s your truth and discontinue it’s use. But for everyone else, it should not be illegal. Criminalization of marijuana has always been a huge gov’t scam since decades ago. But they’re fine with selling you deadly cancer causing cigarettes and making that legal. Just one example of many outdated, stupid, contradictory rules created by primitive minds in past gov’t leadership positions.
I do not partake in any drugs but the states are legalizing marijuana. I don’t care much for alcohol, but is it fair that when a driver is off duty at home they can’t participate in the legalization that the people driving cars around us do?? We have a so called president destroying America daily and he is not required to pass/take a drug screen….and the people setting on their backside getting my hard earned tax dollars are not drug tested as they should be.