Proposed CA law would do-away with most pre-employment marijuana tests
Legislation would protect California workers from cannabis screening
A bill proposed in the California state legislature would protect workers from being subjected to drug tests that screen their urine for cannabis. An official from California NORML, which advocates for decriminalizing marijuana, joined KTVU to talk about the possible legal change
HAYWARD, Calif. (KTVU) - A Hayward assemblyman introduced a new bill in the state legislature to end most common pre-employment drug screenings for marijuana.
Assembly Bill 1256, proposed by Assemblyman Bill Quirk, would make it unlawful for employers to use tactics such as hair or urine tests to determine if someone has consumed marijuana in the past. If passed, the law would prevent employers from using that evidence as grounds for discrimination against an employee by denying or terminating employment, the Sacramento Bee reports.
The bill comes five years after Californians voted to legalize recreational marijuana, but companies can still require future and current employees to test for cannabis.
"It is those tests that we want to ban, because they don’t detect anything related to impairment," Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML, a sponsor of the bill.
According to the Sacramento Bee, hair and urine tests can show evidence of previous marijuana use, but not whether someone is under the influence of THC, the main ingredient psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.
"You can’t judge a worker by their urine. If you do that, you’re going to have a piss-poor workforce," Gieringer said.