As marijuana legalization continues to expand rapidly, many employers are grappling with how to update their drug policies without employee privacy going up in smoke.
At a time when the labor market is tightening, employers in some states report more candidates are also failing drug tests. Kathy Bray, president of Denham Resources, an HR consulting firm in Fresno, Calif., fears the opening of that state’s legal marijuana market at the start of this year could make the situation worse.
“It’s not a new problem, but if more people are thinking they can use marijuana, it could be even harder to get people to pass a drug screen,” Bray says. “Most of our clients continue to test but some have quit and just dropped it because they have trouble hiring people.”
As the legalization and use of marijuana increases, HR leaders across the country are assessing their current policies. Employers in safety-sensitive industries such as transportation and construction continue to maintain and clarify their strict testing, but others have quietly ceased pre-screen and random testing because too many people are turning up positive. Experts say that, until there’s more legal clarification and better testing methods, drug policies in the U.S. workforce will only become more hazy. [Read More @ Human Resource Executive]
