Legal cannabis poses a quandary for US companies screening staff for drugs

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Virginia last year fully legalized marijuana — the first state in the South to do so. The upshot is that ‘being positive for cannabis does not necessarily disqualify you for employment,’ said Wyatt Bassett, CEO of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture

Virginia last year fully legalized marijuana — the first state in the South to do so. The upshot is that "being positive for cannabis does not necessarily disqualify you for employment," said Bassett, CEO of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co., which has 575 employees.Faced with a shortfall in applicants, employers across the U.S. are balancing pressure to ease up on testing for a legal drug with concerns that this could impact safety and raise issues of liability.

The e-commerce giant — like many other employers — said it will treat cannabis like alcohol, even though traces of its use linger in the human body far longer and can show up on some types of tests after a worker is no longer impaired by its use. "We will continue to do impairment checks on the job and will test for all drugs and alcohol after any incident," wrote former-CEO Dave Clark, in a blog post at the time of the announcement.

Most of the tests Quest conducts use urine samples. Other tests rely on swabbing saliva or hair samples. "None of this testing can say whether someone is impaired," said Sample. Rather, the tests will simply indicate the presence of the drug based on a pre-set threshold. Insurance experts say it is too early to see if the changes will drive up insurance rates for companies that drop testing. "Nobody is going to come out and say, 'We're increasing premiums because you have more stoned workers on the job,'" said Mark Pew, a consultant who specializes in workers' compensation insurance in Georgia.

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I don't care if people drink or smoke. But I don't want to use heavy machinery with them if they're drunk or stoned.

But hard narcotics are fine and your all driving around on them too

The federal law needs to catch up. National companies don't follow local law. Even with prescription.

I’ll take a stoner over an a&&hole any day.

Well, yes, and the federal government can correct this by removing cannabis completely from the controlled substances act!

good luck to you and your stoner employee

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