Insights into the forces shaping our industry.

While legalizing medical and recreational marijuana seems to be quickly creeping up across the nation, employers and employees are quickly finding themselves in in a difficult spot.  Without solid answers for every situation they face or federal backing of these new laws, many are having to make some tough choices.

One of our email responses stated “One of the biggest challenges is that science has not caught up with the changes in the law.  Currently, drug testing for marijuana can only tell if the drug has been used.  It cannot accurately test whether or not the person is under the influence.” This seems to be the most widely stated concern within the responses received.

“One of the biggest challenges is that science has not caught up with the changes in the law.  Currently, drug testing for marijuana can only tell if the drug has been used.  It cannot accurately test whether or not the person is under the influence.”

When it comes to where we are legally within the U.S. currently, marijuana holds the following status:

• Legal Medical Use: 28 states, Washington, D.C., P.R. & Guam
• Legal Recreational Use: 8 states and Washington DC
• Decriminalized: 13 states plus the U.S. Virgin Islands

This means that there are 28 states, D.C., and 3 U.S. territories currently allowing some form of marijuana use, with most supporting medical marijuana being legalized. Yet without Federal support, this leaves a lot of questions along with rising concerns.

With many questions of our own, Egret’s recruiting team emailed companies within the Electrical Industry in regards to the new laws, asking if, or how this affects their drug testing policies. The response was overwhelming and we are grateful for all who were open to sharing their policies, opinions and concerns with us. While we received a large number of reply’s, we conducted our research using 140 of the most in-depth email responses.

When it came to companies discussing their current policies for drug testing, 89% said they drug test pre-employment and some also include random employee testing. Random testing depended on certain factors such as if they have a Government contract and also upon the job title of the employee, with titles like Driver or Factory Employee being tested more often than office personnel, and for obvious safety reasons. 11% of companies stated they are not currently drug testing their employees.

22% of companies who responded to our email said they have lenience policies or have seen situations of lenience for current employees who fail Marijuana testing.  The policies all seemed to include terms and conditions such as an employee choosing to attend rehab. The situational lenience was seen as being dependent on different factors such as: position, length of employment, ability to replace without loss to company and dependability of the employee. 29% of companies said they would consider hiring someone who has a medical marijuana prescription (depending on position).

As for thoughts on if Marijuana testing policy changes are in our near future in the workplace, 48% believe that policy changes are coming. 17% were firm on the idea of no change, and 35% were undecided or non-specific on policy change.

In the end, one response summed it up perfectly “This is all very confusing!”.  And it is because there are too many “what if’s” and future unknowns. Only time will tell if the marijuana testing policies will change.