Marijuana Rescheduling Could Create A Safety ‘Blind Spot’ In Drug Testing For Airline Pilots And Truck Drivers, Says Gov Agency
Marijuana rescheduling could have significant implications for truckers, commercial drivers, pilots and other federally regulated transit workers in safety-sensitive positions. That’s according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which warned on Tuesday that the proposed DEA move to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III could “imperil federally required drug testing,” for such workers.
Why?
The NTSB said the move would ban federally required testing of safety-sensitive transportation employees for cannabis use as laboratories certified by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for such testing are not authorized to test for Schedule III controlled substances.
The agency pushed the DEA to “ensure that any final rule to reschedule marijuana does not compromise marijuana testing under DOT [Dept. of Transportation] and …