WASHINGTON REPORT BY LAURA SHELTON, CMP
It is important to note that marijuana
remains a drug listed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. It remains unacceptable for any safety‐sensitive employee subject to drug testing under the Department of Transportation’s drug test- ing regulations to use marijuana. We want to assure the traveling public
that our transportation system is the safest it can possibly be.
DOT Stresses “Specific Written Consent” Te DOT recently contacted DATIA to
Department of Transportation (DOT) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Issue Statements Regarding Recreational Marijuana In the wake of the elections where a
number of states passed initiatives to allow recreational use of marijuana, both the DOT and SAMHSA issued statements on how those laws affect their drug and alcohol testing programs. Tese statements are below in their entirety.
SAMHSA Statement: As many of you are aware, a number of
states have recently passed initiatives that permit the use of marijuana for “recreational” purposes. As a point of clarification, there have been no changes to the panel of drugs being tested under the federal Drug-Free Workplace Program (DFWP). Terefore, the DFWP (as established under Executive Order 12564, Public Law 100-71 and the Mandatory Guide- lines) will continue to operate in accordance with federal law, which identifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Sub- stance Act. As such, federal civilian employees within the executive branch covered by the DFWP will continue to be tested for marijuana at the established cut off levels noted in the Mandatory Guidelines.
24 datia focus
DOT Statement: Recently, some states passed initiatives
to permit use of marijuana for so-called “recreational” purposes. We have had several inquiries about
whether these state initiatives will have an impact upon the Department of Trans- portation’s longstanding regulation about the use of marijuana by safety‐sensitive transportation employees—pilots, school bus drivers, truck drivers, train engineers, subway operators, aircraſt maintenance per- sonnel, transit fire‐armed security person- nel, ship captains, and pipeline emergency response personnel, among others. We want to make it perfectly clear that
the state initiatives will have no bearing on the Department of Transportation’s regu- lated drug testing program. Te Depart- ment of Transportation’s Drug and Alcohol Testing Regulation—49 CFR Part 40— does not authorize the use of Schedule I drugs, including marijuana, for any reason. Terefore, Medical Review Officers
(MROs) will not verify a drug test as negative based upon learning that the employee used “recreational marijuana” when states have passed “recreational marijuana” initiatives. We also firmly reiterate that an MRO will
not verify a drug test negative based upon information that a physician recommended that the employee use “medical marijuana” when states have passed “medical mari- juana” initiatives.
reemphasize that employers must only in- clude one employee and one past employer on consents signed by the employee autho- rizing the new employer to verify prior drug and alcohol testing history. Te information below is from page 24 of the “What Employ- ers Need to Know About DOT Drug and Alcohol Testing” document. Keep in mind that the consent must be a
specific release authorizing the new employer to receive testing information fom a specific former or current employer about a specific employee. It cannot be a blanket release: For example, it cannot have multiple employers on one release form; it must be employee-specific; it must be employer-specific; and it must be time-period specific. Furthermore, CFR 49 Part 40.321
states “(b) “Specific written consent” means a statement signed by the employee that he or she agrees to the release of a particular piece of information to a particular, explic- itly identified, person or organization at a particular time. “Blanket releases,” in which an employee agrees to a release of a category of information (e.g., all test results) or to release information to a category of parties (e.g., other employers who are members of a C/TPA, companies to which the employee may apply for employment), are prohibited under this part. DATIA encourages its members to
contact their clients to ensure that they are following this required practice. ❚
winter 2013
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