Articles Discussing Drugs & Alcohol In The Workplace.

On October 25, 2022, U.S. professional basketball player Brittney Griner lost her bid in a Russian appeals court to overturn a nine-year sentence for attempting to smuggle illegal drugs into Russia. According to reports, Griner, a Women’s National Basketball Association star and two-time Olympic gold medalist, was arrested at a

Over the course of the World Cup, we have been publishing our own matchups, comparing various aspects of labor and employment law in some of the participating countries. Parts One and Two of this series examined timeouts (vacation) and sick leave entitlements.

Voters in Maryland and Missouri approved laws to legalize recreational marijuana on Election Day 2022.  Recreational marijuana ballot initiatives did not pass in Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Maryland

Maryland voters approved a state constitutional amendment that will allow the use of cannabis by anyone over the age of

Cannabis use has been legalized in 19 different states, so far. In New Jersey, state legislation has been passed to ensure employees who engage with cannabis recreationally are not penalized in the workplace. Still, many employees are subject to drug tests that continue to identify the presence of marijuana,

Due to the proliferation of state and local laws legalizing marijuana and protecting off-duty use, employers are struggling with whether it makes sense to continue to drug test for marijuana.  Earlier this month I was privileged to record a podcast with the Disability Management Employer Coalition on the topic of

Legalization of medical and recreational marijuana use continues to spread across the United States despite the drug remaining a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law. This comes as respondents to Ogletree Deakins’ recent survey report, Strategies and Benchmarks for the Workplace: Ogletree’s Survey of Key Decision-Makers, indicated that keeping

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published data on May 11, 2022 concluding that drug overdoses in 2021 reached the highest levels on record.  CDC stated that an estimated 107,622 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States in 2021, largely driven by opioids.  This figure is a

The last few years have provided numerous reasons for employers to reevaluate drug testing practices—from the rapid development of job protections for medical and recreational marijuana use, to the increase in drug testing-based litigation, to pandemic-related remote work, to staffing challenges. Ogletree Deakins’ April 2022 report, Strategies and Benchmarks for

Yes, in almost every U.S. jurisdiction an employer can ask workers who appear to be impaired or otherwise in violation of the employer’s drug and alcohol testing policy to submit to a reasonable suspicion drug test. Even in jurisdictions that authorize the use of marijuana and marijuana products for medical or recreational reasons, the laws permit employers to discipline workers who come to work impaired.

The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act passed the House of Representatives on April 1, 2022. If passed by the Senate and signed by the President, the bill would clear marijuana-related convictions from people’s records and remove marijuana from the federal controlled substances list. The bill specifically prohibits the denial

According to a new Quest Diagnostic Study analyzing workplace drug test results in 2021, employers saw the highest rate of positive drug test results in twenty years. The study was based on more than 11 million urine, hair and oral fluid drug tests collected during calendar year 2021.  Of the

Manufacturers that conduct workplace drug and alcohol testing must be careful when addressing drug test results and employee disclosures of prescription medication use, especially as drug use has surged across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) published in the Federal Register on February 28, 2022 a notice of proposed rulemaking for oral fluid drug testing of transportation employees covered by federal regulations.  DOT stated that the addition of oral fluid drug testing will give employers a choice to help combat

While employers in the transportation industry are acutely aware of the effects COVID-19 has imposed over the last 18 months, another phenomenon has been making itself known: the ever-increasing tally of states and localities across the country legalizing cannabis for medicinal and recreational purposes. A majority of states now have enacted laws that permit patients suffering from debilitating illnesses to access and use medical cannabis.  As of this writing, nineteen states, plus the District of Columbia and Guam, have also legalized recreational cannabis consumption. 

The Drug Enforcement Administration issued a public safety alert on September 27, 2021 to warn Americans of the alarming increase in the lethality and availability of fake prescription pills containing fentanyl and methamphetamine.  Calling its public safety campaign “One Pill Can Kill,” the DEA’s first public safety alert in six