Having to pee in a cup as a condition of employment is humiliating enough, but it has been the norm in many industries since the Reagan drug war orthodoxy of the 1980s. Now, however, you may also have to pass a urine test to get unemployment benefits if you get laid off.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration\u2019s Department of Labor on Oct. 3\u00a0promulgated a new rule<\/a>\u00a0allowing \u201cgreater clarity and flexibility\u201d to states in identifying occupations in which drug testing will be used in their unemployment insurance programs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe flexibility offered in the new rule respects state differences with regard to employment drug testing across our country,\u201d said John Pallasch, the assistant secretary for employment and training. \u201cThis rule lays out a standard that states can individually meet under the facts of their specific economies and practices.\u201d<\/p>\n The rule,\u00a0published in the Federal Register<\/a>, permits states to test unemployment compensation applicants if they worked in an occupation where drug testing is regularly conducted. In addition to specific occupations named in the rule, states can additionally identify other occupations where employers conduct drug testing as a standard eligibility requirement for employment.\u00a0<\/p>\n The new rule rescinds a 2016 regulation under which states were limited to testing unemployment applicants from certain listed occupations in which workers are tested \u201cregularly.\u201d\u00a0At the time, Congress passed a \u201cresolution of disapproval\u201d about the more lax rule, which was then signed by Trump.<\/p>\n The Labor Department said authority for the new rule is granted under the Middle Class Tax Relief & Job Creation Act of 2012, which allows states to deny unemployment compensation to an applicant who tests positive and who worked in an occupation that regularly conducts drug testing.<\/p>\n The new rule seems to sum up the strange political schizophrenia affecting the United States at this moment, with legal and cultural space rapidly opening for cannabis even amid harsh reaction at the highest levels of power.\u00a0<\/p>\n The rule comes just a week after a new labor secretary took office \u2014 Eugene Scalia, a veteran corporate lawyer and son of the late arch-conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He\u00a0replaces<\/a>\u00a0Alexander Acosta, who stepped down amid public outcry over the leniency of a 2008 plea agreement he struck with the infamous financier sex-offender (and Trump crony) Jeffrey Epstein back when Acosta was U.S. attorney in southern Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n And Acosta, whatever his misdeeds, appears to have had more progressive views on this particular question. Last year, he called on employers to rethink the practice of drug testing every job applicant, which he suggested was a barrier to qualified people entering the workforce.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThere are sometimes valid health and safety reasons why an individual that cannot pass a drug test shouldn\u2019t hold a certain job,\u201d Acosta replied. But he added that some employers \u201cmake the assumption that because there\u2019s a negative result on a test they would not be a good employee.\u201d<\/p>\n As\u00a0Politico<\/a>\u00a0noted, Acosta\u2019s remarks seemed to reflect a softening of views on cannabis within the Trump White House. That same month, Trump\u00a0reportedly told<\/a>\u00a0Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) that he would support legislation that deferred to states on the legality of cannabis \u2014 and this despite a\u00a0new campaign<\/a>\u00a0to crack down on cannabis by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.<\/p>\n Such hopes for a softening are being dashed yet again \u2014 as Scalia issues his new rule, and the U.S. Surgeon General launches a\u00a0new propaganda campaign<\/a>\u00a0against cannabis.<\/p>\n There is momentum from the states in a more relaxed direction, however \u2014 holding out hope that many will not choose to exploit their new latitude to impose urine tests. As Illinois prepares for adult-use cannabis to become legal on Jan. 1, employers are being told to consider how a zero-tolerance policy may affect their ability to recruit workers.<\/p>\n \u201cUnemployment is so low that employers cannot insist on a zero-tolerance policy,\u201d Curtis Graves, staff attorney for the Denver-based\u00a0Employers Council<\/a>, told Peoria\u2019s\u00a0Journal Star<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n An Employers Council survey in 2018 indicated that 13% of employers not regulated by the Department of Transportation had relaxed their cannabis testing policies in the previous two years, and 7% had dropped cannabis from pre-employment testing altogether.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A\u00a0scandal in New Orleans<\/a>\u00a0over false positives in the city\u2019s drug testing program has focused attention on the injustices of the urine-test orthodoxy.<\/p>\n And two years after legalizing, Nevada this June\u00a0became the first state<\/a>\u00a0to bar employers from discriminating against job applicants on the basis of a positive test for cannabis.\u00a0<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, have you been drug tested before?<\/p>\n The post Trump Admin. Wants Drug Testing for Unemployment Benefits<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Having to pee in a cup as a condition of employment is humiliating enough, but it has been the norm in many industries since the Reagan drug war orthodoxy of the 1980s. Now, however, you may also have to pass a urine test to get unemployment benefits if you getContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,95,484,1534,81,429,12683],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38927,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38926\/revisions\/38927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Political Schizophrenia in Federal Cannabis Policy<\/h4>\n
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Acosta\u2019s remarks came in response to a question from Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) during a House Ways & Means Committee hearing in April 2018. Blumenauer, representing a state with legal cannabis, expressed concern over marijuana showing up \u201cin ways that are disqualifying\u201d on drug tests. He asked Acosta what could be done to \u201cunleash\u201d those workers\u2019 potential.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\nRead More: Trump Admin. Wants Drug Testing for Unemployment Benefits<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"