California employers, please make sure you are aware and understand the new marijuana law going into effect on January 1, 2024, in California. Please review:
https://www.nationaldrugscreening.com/blogs/marijuana-drug-testing-in-california/
This law does not affect DOT or California PUC drug testing programs.
The goal of this new law is for employers to test for recent use or the current presence of marijuana in an employee’s body, not something they consumed days or weeks ago. California does not want employees penalized for what they do on their own time, just like alcohol.
The law restricts some or all drug screening utilizing non-psychoactive cannabis metabolite testing, which is the case with urine testing or hair testing most frequently used by employers.
As an employer, you must make some decisions and communicate these to your employees. One option is to eliminate marijuana from your urine drug testing panel. The second option is to initiate lab based oral fluid screening to keep you in compliance with the law. Lab based oral fluid testing detects the parent drug marijuana and not the non-psychoactive cannabis metabolite.
You can move your entire testing program to lab based oral fluid testing to detect all the drugs you are currently testing for. Specimen collection for lab based oral fluid testing will be available at LabCorp patient service centers or third-party collection sites. You also have the option to collect oral fluid specimens in house and ship FedEx to the lab.
Please contact National Drug Screening for consultation and questions and to set up oral fluid testing accounts or to drop marijuana from your current testing panel.
National Drug Screening, Inc.
866-843-4545
sales@nationaldrugscreening.com
