Dive Brief:
- Cannabis rescheduling is not expected to affect the government’s authority to require truck drivers to be tested for the drug, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg testified Thursday.
- “Impairment is, of course, a major safety concern,” Buttigieg told the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. “Our understanding ... is that it would not alter DOT’s marijuana testing requirements.”
- The drug testing requirements refer to cannabis by name, not by its drug class, Buttigieg said. “So even if it moves in its classification, we do not believe that that would have a direct impact on that authority.”
Dive Insight:
The secretary’s response answered — temporarily, at least — a major safety policy question posed by the trucking industry about President Joe Biden’s plan to lower cannabis from a Class I to a Class III substance.
During the hearing, Rep. Rick Crawford of Arkansas echoed concerns raised by the American Trucking Associations. The lobbying group sent two letters to Buttigieg urging the department to allow drug testing of drivers to continue.
“Rescheduling and deregulation of marijuana will inevitably cause the number of people driving impaired while high to grow,” Crawford said.
Cannabis and alcohol were the most common drugs detected across all types of motorists across five geographic areas in the U.S., according to a 2022 report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
The Department of Transportation does not expect the rescheduling to affect requirements for federal employees, either, including those with a security clearance or in safety-sensitive positions, Buttigieg said.
“We do not understand that to be changed ... based on the reclassification decision,” Buttigieg said. “But we're continuing to evaluate any indirect impacts that it might have.”
