The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is giving advice to businesses on how to develop marijuana policies that respect state legalization laws but mitigate the risk of impaired driving.<\/p>\n
In a post published last week by CDC\u2019s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the agency said that there are inherent risks to driving while under the influence of THC, but the issue is nuanced due to distinct state policies and the fact that there\u2019s currently no tool in widespread use to detect active impairment from cannabis.<\/p>\n
To that end, it laid out \u201cbest practices\u201d for employers that recognize that \u201cmarijuana\u2019s specific contribution to crash risk is unclear because it can be detected in body fluids for days or even weeks after use.\u201d<\/p>\n
Employers should create cannabis policies that account \u201cfor current laws in each state where your company operates,\u201d CDC said<\/a>, adding that a \u201czero-tolerance policy for marijuana may not be possible, depending on your state\u2019s laws.\u201d<\/p>\n For example, New York\u2019s Department of Labor recently updated its drug testing policies<\/a> to widely block employers from screening for THC since marijuana was legalized in the state. It does carve out certain exceptions, however, including for workers contracted by the federal Department of Transportation.<\/p>\n CDC did argue that an ideal policy should at minimum prohibit workers from using cannabis on the job or showing up to work impaired.<\/p>\n It also recommended partnering with an attorney who can \u201creview your policy and provide feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n If drug testing is part of a business\u2019s marijuana policy, employers should make sure that the conditions under which a worker might be tested are clear, that a trained medical professional is available to accurately interpret THC testing results and that drivers are adequately informed about the risks of consuming CBD products that might be mislabeled and contain excess THC levels that could be detectable in a drug test, CDC said.<\/p>\n Further, the agency recommends that employers provide \u201caccess to support for employees with drug problems, either through in-house programs or referrals to local resources\u201d and also stay up-to-date on \u201cthe relevant state marijuana laws and any improved methods for determining impairment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDespite some unanswered questions about marijuana\u2019s role in crash risk, workers under the influence of marijuana do not have the skills needed to drive safely,\u201d the post concludes. \u201cBecause marijuana use is on the rise for adults in the U.S., this substance needs to be addressed by all workplace motor vehicle safety programs.\u201d<\/p>\n Experts and advocates have emphasized that evidence isn\u2019t clear on the relationship between THC concentrations in blood and impairment.<\/p>\n A study published in 2019, for example, concluded that those who drive at the legal THC limit\u2014which is typically between two to five nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood\u2014were not statistically more likely to be involved in an accident<\/a>\u00a0compared to people who haven\u2019t used marijuana.<\/p>\n Separately, the\u00a0Congressional Research Service in 2019 determined<\/a>\u00a0that while \u201cmarijuana consumption can affect a person\u2019s response times and motor performance\u2026 studies of the impact of marijuana consumption on a driver\u2019s risk of being involved in a crash have produced conflicting results, with some studies finding little or no increased risk of a crash from marijuana usage.\u201d<\/p>\n At the state level, an attempt to provide protections for Pennsylvania medical marijuana patients<\/a> from being charged with driving under the influence was derailed in the legislature last week, apparently due to pushback by the state police association.<\/p>\n Pennsylvania\u2019s Lieutenant Governor Wants To Process As Many Marijuana Pardons As Possible Before Leaving Office<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Image courtesy of blinkend<\/a> from Pixabay.<\/em><\/p>\n The post CDC Gives Workplace Marijuana Policy Advice To Businesses That Employ Drivers<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is giving advice to businesses on how to develop marijuana policies that respect state legalization laws but mitigate the risk of impaired driving. In a post published last week by CDC\u2019s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the agency saidContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51442"}],"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\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51443,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51442\/revisions\/51443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: CDC Gives Workplace Marijuana Policy Advice To Businesses That Employ Drivers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"