Amazon Supports Federal Legalization Of Marijuana, Will Stop Testing For Workplace Cannabis Use In Most Positions

Slowly but steadily, the federal legalization of cannabis seems to be taking shape, especially as institutional voices are increasingly speaking up.

This week, Amazon AMZN came out in support of the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2021 (MORE Act).

Dave Clark, CEO of Worldwide Consumer, the organization that leads the finance function for all of Amazon’s retail websites, wrote this on the company's blog:¨We know that this issue is bigger than Amazon, our public policy team will be actively supporting the MORE Act, federal legislation that would legalize marijuana at the federal level, expunge criminal records, and invest in impacted communities. We hope that other employers will join us, and that policymakers will act swiftly to pass this law.¨

Amazon said it would adjust its corporate drug testing policy for some of its workers and will no longer include marijuana in its drug screening program for any positions not regulated by the Department of Transportation.

“In the past, like many employers, we’ve disqualified people from working at Amazon if they tested positive for marijuana use,” Clark said. “However, given where state laws are moving across the U.S., we’ve changed course.”
He added that Amazon will continue to do impairment checks on the job and will test for all drugs and alcohol after any incident.

Following Amazon's announcement, Paul Armentano, Deputy Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) responded.

“This decision reflects today’s changing cultural landscape. Suspicionless marijuana testing in the workplace, such as pre-employment drug screening, is not now, nor has it ever been, an evidence-based policy. Rather, this discriminatory practice is a holdover from the zeitgeist of the 1980s ‘war on drugs,’" Armentano said in a statement.

"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."