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Report on Trucking, Cannabis Finds Most Drivers Support Testing Reform
A new report from the American Transportation Research Institute says that a majority of drivers and carriers in the trucking industry support drug testing reform.
The impacts of cannabis legalization on the trucking industry, namely the recent decline in drivers due to strict rules on drug use on drug testing, are already well-documented. However, a new report from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) dives in even further.
The report titled, “Impacts of Marijuana Legalization on the Trucking Industry” takes a closer look at the latest demographic trends in cannabis legalization, reviews research and data surrounding highway safety and cannabis use, summarizes workforce and hiring implications for the trucking industry and analyzes publicly available CDL driver drug test data.
It also takes a closer look at truck driver and carrier opinions on cannabis — finding that the majority of both support a change in the current drug testing policies — along with an analysis of cannabis policies imposed upon drivers, detailed drug testing data, a closer look at research on cannabis, road safety, and much more.
Driver Shortage and Cannabis Legalization
The ATRI released its first research publication on the impact of cannabis legalization on the trucking industry in 2019. Citing the many additional jurisdictions that have since legalized or decriminalized cannabis, ATRI’s Research Advisory Committee voted last year to conduct research and revisit the topic.
To operate large trucks, drivers are required to possess a commercial driver’s license, and in the trucking industry in particular, current federal law requires those with commercial licenses to abstain from using cannabis or risk termination. According to the report and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, more than half of all positive trucking industry drug tests are for cannabis metabolite.
Should a driver test positive, they are removed from the industry until they complete a series of remedial steps. Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse data indicates that more than 100,000 drivers tested positive and were removed from duty between 2020 and 2022.
“With a national driver shortage that fluctuated between 65,000 and 80,000 in recent years, these positive tests impact the industry,” the report says.
The report notes that federal prohibition “has been highlighted as a potential disincentive for drivers to stay in the industry, and it has even been argued that loosening the restrictions on marijuana use would make the industry more attractive and widen the potential labor pool.”
Valuable Insights on Cannabis Opinions in the Trucking Industry
The 61-page report is overflowing with information on cannabis and trucking, including figures on the increase of truckers residing in recreational cannabis states between 2019 and 2023 (18.5% versus 41.1% respectively), recent cannabis road safety research, federal requirements throughout the industry, a look at the last decade of drug testing data, and more.
Among the highlights are survey results surrounding driver and carrier opinions on cannabis. A majority of carriers (56.3%) said they would be willing to hire a driver with a past positive cannabis test, though more than half (54.8%) of that group said a specific period of time would need to pass first. The most common increment of time reported was five years (37%).
The majority of carriers (60.1%) also reported that there had been a noticeable increase in positive pre-employment tests or walk-outs over the past five years, and of those who noticed an increase, nearly half (45.5%) indicated that no particular age group was more likely to test positive. Otherwise, the most frequently selected age group was 26-35 years old (27.6%).
Most carriers (62%) said that changes in federal drug testing policy are needed and that a cannabis impairment test should replace a cannabis use test (65.4%). While carriers largely recognized that the current model is flawed, most (40.9%) were still “extremely concerned” about impaired driving as a result of cannabis legalization.
Most drivers (55.4%) said that they believed highway safety had not been impacted by legalized cannabis use, and 65% said that a cannabis impairment test should replace a cannabis use test.
The driver survey also included a text box, where drivers could provide any final comments surrounding recreational cannabis. Most comments fell into two categories: those supporting a loosening of cannabis testing and laws (72.4%) and comments supporting the status quo (27.6%).
The Path Forward
The report says that there are two pathways the federal government can take in the future with cannabis, and both present challenges for the trucking industry.
Should it maintain federal prohibition, “the trucking industry will continue to have thousands of drivers annually placed in prohibited status and will lose many others to occupations that do not test for marijuana use,” the report said. ATRI says that companies can continue to enforce zero-tolerance policies and keeping the status quo could help resolve disputes from conflicting state and federal policies.
The report also states, “Any shift toward federal legalization would likely ease pressure on the industry’s driver shortage.”
“The central goal of industry drug testing efforts is highway safety. The current approach supports safety efforts, but also results in inefficiencies when drivers that do not present a safety issue are removed from the industry,” it says, adding that the trucking industry must take several actions to ensure safety and a lack of impairment before federal efforts to legalize cannabis come to fruition.
Source: https://hightimes.com/news/report-on-trucking-cannabis-finds-most-drivers-support-testing-reform/
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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