Marijuana Rescheduling Could Create A Safety 'Blind Spot' In Drug Testing For Airline Pilots And Truck Drivers, Says Gov Agency

Marijuana rescheduling could have significant implications for truckers, commercial drivers, pilots and other federally regulated transit workers in safety-sensitive positions. That's according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which warned on Tuesday that the proposed DEA move to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III could "imperil federally required drug testing," for such workers.

Why?

The NTSB said the move would ban federally required testing of safety-sensitive transportation employees for cannabis use as laboratories certified by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for such testing are not authorized to test for Schedule III controlled substances.

The agency pushed the DEA to "ensure that any final rule to reschedule marijuana does not compromise marijuana testing under DOT [Dept. of Transportation] and HHS procedures applicable to safety-sensitive transportation employees," including airline pilots, airline maintenance workers, bus and truck drivers, locomotive engineers, subway train operators, ship captains, pipeline operators, personnel transporting hazardous materials and air traffic controllers, to name a few.

Read Also: WA Bill To Protect Workers’ Off-The-Clock Marijuana Use, Personal Weed Cultivation In MO & More Reg Updates

Furthermore, the NTSB emphasized the marijuana rescheduling process needs to take into account that marijuana testing needs to be a part of re-employment, random, reasonable suspicion, and post-accident drug testing to avoid a safety "blind spot."

"Removal of marijuana testing from DOT and HHS drug testing panels for safety-sensitive transportation employees would remove a layer of safety oversight that employers have been managing for decades, and it would prevent DOT and HHS drug testing from acting as a deterrent to marijuana use by those employees," the NTSB said. "Additionally, the NTSB would no longer have DOT and federal workplace marijuana test results as evidence in our investigations."

Meanwhile, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently said that President Joe Biden’s proposal to reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III would not change drug testing policies for commercial trucker drivers.

Before that, the American Trucking Associations warned the Biden administration’s anticipated move to recategorize marijuana will likely lead to more truck crashes unless safeguards are put in place.

Read Next

• Alcohol And Marijuana Are Primary Substances Detected In Drivers, NTSB Report Finds

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