Medical Marijuana Is Off Limits To Truckers And Pilots Despite Trump Administration's Reclassification

The Trump administration moved to federally reclassify medical marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug last month, making medical marijuana use federally legal. Unfortunately for some of the hardest working Americans, though, the change will not affect them. The Department of Transportation clarified in a new notice yesterday that federally regulated workers who are subject to drug testing like truck drivers and airline pilots are still not permitted to consume the devil's lettuce, whether it's prescribed by a doctor or otherwise.

The notice is aimed at Medical Review Officers or MROs, who review drug screening results for federal employees. It says, "Currently, there is no instance when the MRO could verify a laboratory-confirmed marijuana positive drug test result as 'negative' when an employee claims the positive was caused by a State licensed marijuana product." To be clear: even after rescheduling, weed is not an FDA-approved drug, thus it is not permitted to show up on drug tests for employees in safety sensitive transportation roles.

Part of the challenge is verbiage that, according to Marijuana Moment, "for commercial truckers... the department specifically lists marijuana as substance to screen." This limitation does not criminalize the consumption of marijuana, it only means that workers who are subject to certain DOT restrictions will continue to be subject to screening for marijuana, and if they test positive, they fail their drug screening.

According to the DOT document, "A "legitimate medical explanation" requires use of a legally prescribed controlled substance in compliance with Federal laws governing such a prescription. 49 CFR §§ 40.137(a); 40.141(b). Marijuana use under State marijuana programs or other non-prescription sources do not qualify as a "legitimate medical explanation" under 49 CFR § 40.137(a). In addition, marijuana use is not compatible with safety-sensitive functions."

As a counter to the restriction, Marijuana Moment points out that "cannabis metabolites can stay in a person's system for weeks after use and still be detected on drug tests even when there is no impairment." This is bad news for folks in safety sensitive roles who were hoping to swap their prescription opiate painkillers for a plant-based alternative, though it's best to know that folks aren't flying commercial planes under the influence.