DOT OFFICE OF DRUG AND ALCOHOL POLICY AND
COMPLIANCE NOTICE
Recently, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued guidelines for
Federal prosecutors in states that have enacted laws authorizing
the use of "medical marijuana."
http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/medical-marijuana.pdf.
We have had several inquiries about whether the DOJ advice to
Federal prosecutors regarding pursuing criminal cases will have
an impact upon the Department of Transportation's longstanding
regulation about the use of marijuana by safety-sensitive
transportation employees - pilots, school bus drivers, truck
drivers, train engineers, subway operators, aircraft maintenance
personnel, transit fire-armed security personnel, ship captains,
and pipeline emergency response personnel, among others.
We want to make it perfectly clear that the DOJ guidelines will
have no bearing on the Department of Transportation's regulated
drug testing program. We will not change our regulated drug
testing program based upon these guidelines to Federal
prosecutors.
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.
That section states:
§ 40.151 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 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." Please note 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.
We want to assure the traveling public that our transportation
system is the safest it can possibly be.
Jim L. Swart
Director
Office of the Secretary of Transportation
Office of Drug and Alcohol
Policy and Compliance
Department of Transportation
October 22, 2009