Use of ‘medical marijuana’ doesn’t pass muster with DOT

“We will not change our regulated drug testing program based upon these guidelines to federal prosecutors [about use of medical marijuana],” DOT drug compliance director Jim L. Swart said in a news release.

The Trucker News Services

10/22/2009

WASHINGTON — The director of the Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy and Compliance of the Department of Transportation said today that this week’s advice from the Department of Justice regarding guidelines for federal prosecutors in states that have enacted laws authorizing the use of “medical marijuana” have no bearing on the DOT’s regulated drug testing program.

“We will not change our regulated drug testing program based upon these guidelines to federal prosecutors,” Jim L. Swart said in a news release.

Swart was responding to a memorandum to U.S. attorneys issued Oct. 19 by Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden.

“Prosecution of individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or those caregivers in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law who provide such individuals with marijuana, is unlikely to be an efficient use of limited federal resources,” Ogden said.

“The Department of Transportation’s Drug and Alcohol Testing Regulation — 49 CFR Part 40, at 40.151(e) — does not authorize ‘medical marijuana’ under a state law to be a valid medical explanation for a transportation employee’s positive drug test result,” Swart said.

That section reads: “What are MROs prohibited from doing as part of the verification process?

As an MRO, you are prohibited from doing the following as part of the verification process:

(e) You must not verify a test [was] negative based on information that a physician recommended that the employee use a drug listed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. (e.g., under a state law that purports to authorize such recommendations, such as the “medical marijuana” laws that some states have adopted.)

“Therefore, Medical Review Officers will not verify a drug test as negative based upon information that a physician recommended that the employee use ‘medical marijuana,’” Swart said, noting that marijuana remains a drug listed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.

“It remains unacceptable for any safety-sensitive employee subject to drug testing under the Department of Transportation’s drug testing regulations to use marijuana,” Swart said. “We want to assure the traveling public that our transportation system is the safest it can possibly be.”

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