Will UPS Follow? Amazon Will Stop Testing Job Seekers For Marijuana And Now Backs Legalizing Weed

newolddude

Well-Known Member

Amazon will no longer test most job applicants for marijuana use in the latest sign of America's changing relationship with pot. Amazon, the second-largest private employer in the U.S., also says it now backs legalizing marijuana nationwide.

"In the past, like many employers, we've disqualified people from working at Amazon if they tested positive for marijuana use," the company said in a blog post on Tuesday. "However, given where state laws are moving across the U.S., we've changed course."

Marijuana users and advocates are cheering the news, but it may also bring relief to Amazon's hiring managers: The company operates — and is rapidly expanding into — places where marijuana is legal.

Amazon's home state of Washington was among the first in the country to legalize marijuana for recreational use, back in 2012. And the tech giant is now building an East Coast headquarters in Virginia, where weed will become legal on July 1. It has also been expanding in New York, which legalized marijuana at the end of March.

Even before New York legalized marijuana, New York City banned testing prospective employees for marijuana, with some exceptions. Based on that law, a New York man sued Amazon in March, saying the company illegally reversed a hiring offer because he had tested positive for THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

With the shift in policy, the only job candidates Amazon will screen for marijuana are those applying for positions regulated by the Department of Transportation — a category that includes delivery truck drivers and operators of heavy machinery. The company says it will handle marijuana the same way it deals with alcohol — and it will still test for all drugs and alcohol after any accidents or other incidents.

Amazon is also acting on the political level, throwing its weight behind the push to legalize marijuana in the U.S. and expunge criminal records for nonviolent marijuana-related convictions.

The company says its public policy team "will be actively supporting" the MORE Act — the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act — a move that adds momentum to legislation that was reintroduced in Congress on Friday.

The MORE Act would remove marijuana from the list of drugs in the federal Controlled Substances Act, making its status similar to alcohol and tobacco. It would also tax cannabis products, directing some of that money toward investments in communities that have been harmed by marijuana's criminalization.

"We hope that other employers will join us, and that policymakers will act swiftly to pass this law," Amazon said in a statement about its support for legal marijuana.

The growing acceptance of marijuana has created a booming cannabis industry, with legal sales generating billions of dollars in revenue. Amazon's move "signals more positive tail winds for the sector at large," according to Matt Hawkins, founder of Entourage Effect Capital, a cannabis investment firm based in Dallas.

Noting Amazon's standing as one of the biggest employers in the country, Hawkins says that "it is huge for the [cannabis] industry to have Amazon no longer drug testing its employees for cannabis as well as to publicly endorse" the MOVE Act.

Laws prohibiting marijuana "are responsible for more than half a million arrests in the United States every year," according to the Drug Policy Alliance, which also supports decriminalization.

The House approved the MORE Act in the previous congressional session after Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and nearly 30 co-sponsors introduced it. Then-Sen. Kamala Harris introduced a companion bill in the Senate, where the legislation stalled.
 

542thruNthru

Well-Known Member

Wally

BrownCafe Innovator & King of Puns
So will lawyers for UPS say "ok, allow your drivers to use a drug with proven cognitive impairment qualities". What's a few lawsuits?
 

Mst3k

Well-Known Member
A lot of our drivers smoke. The company does not care what the drivers put into their body.

that is until the driver ends up on managements :censored2: list and then they become concerned enough for that drug test.
 

Lineandinitial

Legio patria nostra
A lot of our drivers smoke. The company does not care what the drivers put into their body.

that is until the driver ends up on managements * list and then they become concerned enough for that drug test.
Or do something that brings attention to you like being so friend’d up you can’t stand up or speak coherently.
 

Wally

BrownCafe Innovator & King of Puns
A lot of our drivers smoke. The company does not care what the drivers put into their body.

that is until the driver ends up on managements * list and then they become concerned enough for that drug test.
Or they kill a family.
 

BeefiestMass

Well-Known Member
So will lawyers for UPS say "ok, allow your drivers to use a drug with proven cognitive impairment qualities". What's a few lawsuits?
I think it'd probably be more like what Amazon said and still prohibit you from using it while driving like alcohol.
 

Netsua 3:16

AND THAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE
Limited to those who started in their teens. Not sure how they're gonna test for that. Single scope background investigation? lol
What a weird article. Are we supposed to be surprised to find that when kids use mind altering substances as kids it screws up their development ? No sh**, Sherlock. And to tie it into driving, wtf?
 

DriveInDriveOut

Inordinately Right
Well they can't really get in on the multi billion dollar pot industry if they have an anti pot company policy.

Wouldn't be surprised to see sales and deliveries in their future. Maybe a vending machine at whole foods?
 
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