On March 19, 2024, the Connecticut Appellate Court upheld an employer’s right to discharge an employee for being impaired on the job from medical marijuana under a state law that provides employment protections for qualified medical marijuana users. This situation should give employers added confidence in taking steps to maintain a safe workplace environment. We have written before about preventing marijuana users from being in safety sensitive positions. And we have written about establishing a clear link between drug use and the job’s essential functions. Below is a summary of the article by ..read more

A truck driver killed two people and injured dozens in a fatal head-on crash with a school bus has been arrested and charged with criminally negligent homicide, as well as ordered to cease operations by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration following a history of illegal substance abuse. [R&A Comment: We believe this article should be considered clear evidence of the dangers of a lax attitude toward the use of marijuana. And, should be considered clear evidence that marijuana is definitely a gateway drug toward more serious drugs.] On March 22, the truck driver was driving a larg ..read more

Oregon’s Drug Decriminalization program has failed. America’s most radical experiment with drug decriminalization has ended, after more than three years of painful results. Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has pledged to sign legislation repealing the principal elements of the ballot initiative known as Measure 110: Possessing hard drugs is again a crime in Oregon, and courts will return to mandating treatment for offenders. Oregonians had supported Measure 110 with 59 percent of the vote in 2020, but three years later, polling showed that 64 percent wanted some or all of it repealed. We strongly be ..read more

Does UPS and Sysco and Frito-Lay drug test their employees? We thought it would be beneficial to bring you the practices of UPS and Sysco and Frito-Lay in drug testing. If your firm does have a drug testing program, you might want to see if UPS and Sysco and Frito-Lay do drug testing in a similar manner. If your firm does not have a drug testing program, you might want to assess the why and how of the drug testing programs of UPS and Sysco and Frito-Lay  and then determine if your firm is exposed to liability. This is one of our longer blog posts. But we think it is important to view the ..read more

This blog is a summary of an excellent article on how and why to implement drug and alcohol testing protocols. We encourage you to take the time and read the article in detail. The full article is by Alexis Davis a senior staff writer at WebWriterSpotlight.com (WWS). She covers many topics for the publication, including business, health, and technology stories. A well-executed drug and alcohol testing program not only protects employees, but also upholds an organization’s reputation as a responsible corporate citizen. Understanding the Need for Drug and Alcohol Testing Drug and alcohol testing ..read more

It is important for employers to be aware of the similarities and differences between marijuana and alcohol positive tests. This article discussed the ramifications in detail. What follows are those points specifically related to the differences between marijuana and alcohol testing in the workplace. As cannabis legalization spreads in the U.S., many employers are grappling with the question of how to keep their worksites safe. In other words, cannabis use is on the rise, but not enough time has passed for a clear consensus about testing to emerge, let alone a clear set of best practices. As a ..read more

Both surveys and drug testing are showing spikes in employees showing up for work impaired by drugs and alcohol. This article in EHS Daily reports that a majority of adults in the workforce (61%) have a substance use disorder (SUD), according to government data cited by the National Safety Council (NSC). Positive drug tests for marijuana are at a 25-year high, according to a private testing laboratory chain. Both the NSC and the federal government are offering employers new guidance and resources for handling workplace substance use and overdoses. Unintentional workplace overdose deaths reache ..read more

This article highlights the problems of employees returning to work after COVID shutdowns. We have sprinkled some of our previous blog posts in the summary below. For example, one employee got used to drinking several glasses of wine during the workday when working 100% remotely for the past three years. Now, ordered back to the office three days a week, Josie’s secret substance misuse practices are becoming harder to hide. Another employee was an outstanding employee: motivated, participative, and vocal in meetings, and highly visible within the organization. It was also no secret that Jerry ..read more

While there has long been a belief that marijuana users are involved in more accidents, there is now recent concrete evidence. Workforce positivity rates have reached a 20-year high in the wake of increased marijuana legalization, based on research from Quest Diagnostics. Currently, the top three sectors with positivity rates are retail trade, accommodation and food services, and transportation and warehousing. This is concerning for many employers, as these industries involve heavy equipment and high levels of stress and require a clear head. Additionally, marijuana testing rates were higher ..read more

We read this article and noticed some questions about the effectiveness of your workplace drug testing program. We wanted to bring these questions to your attention by presenting a summary of the comments and, most importantly, the list of questions that will help you evaluate your workplace drug testing program. And we wanted to sprinkle some remarks into this post. The question is not whether as an employer you will deal with a scenario in which an employee (or an employee’s immediate family member) has an addiction issue that creates life-altering problems for the employee, as well as opera ..read more