California Takes Action On Marijuana Drug Testing
Have you heard what’s new in California?
California employers will soon be prohibited in most situations from discriminating against employees for off-duty cannabis use that may appear as non-psychoactive metabolites in a traditional urine drug test.
The California Fair Employment and Housing Act officially added new anti-discrimination protections for marijuana users, effective January 2024. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the new law, AB 2188, in September 2022. This law makes it unlawful for most employers to discriminate against a person for hiring, termination, or for any term or condition of employment based on drug testing where cannabis (THC) metabolites are used for detection. Exceptions are within the construction trades and positions that require federal background investigation or security clearance.
When someone consumes marijuana (THC), the body metabolizes the drug into a non-psychoactive form. Traditional urine-based drug testing is based on the detection of these metabolites in a person’s system. Since California law will exclude the detection of non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites in most workplace settings, urine drug testing will no longer be an option for most workplace drug testing.
California employers will soon be prohibited in many situations from discriminating against employees for off-duty cannabis use that may show up as non-psychoactive metabolites in a traditional urine drug test.
On the other hand, oral fluid based drug testing is based on the detection of the parent drug in cannabis, not the metabolites. Since the new California law effectively prohibits workplace testing for cannabis metabolites, oral fluid testing is the ideal testing option for employers.
DOT and SAMHSA have proposed recommendations for adding oral fluid based drug testing as an alternative to urine-based testing.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has proposed the use of oral fluid as an option for the Federal Workplace Drug Testing Program. In the same way, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has also expressed a favorable view of oral fluid based drug testing as an alternative to traditional urine-based drug testing.
DOT reports the detection window for marijuana metabolites in urine can be up to 67 days. This long detection window aligns with concerns about using these metabolites for workplace testing because a positive test does not imply recent use. The detection window for marijuana becomes more limited in oral fluid, up to 24 hours for the detection of the parent drug. This makes rapid oral fluid testing a viable approach for monitoring the recent use of THC. Since oral fluid based drug testing is not limited to the detection of cannabis metabolites, rapid oral fluid testing devices, like OralTox, will soon be a major player moving forward for workplace testing in California.
Now is the best time to make the switch to oral fluid testing. Changing from traditional urine screening to rapid oral fluid will save you considerable time, money, and resources, ultimately improving the hiring process as it streamlines the screening procedure.
Benefits of testing with OralTox include:
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- 100% observed collection
- Results in less than 10 minutes
- Save time and money while improving accuracy and efficiency
Premier Biotech, Inc. industry experts are ready to support this change with the go-to solution to benefit your business.
Schedule your free courtesy call to:
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- Find out more about this impending law change
- Learn what you can do to get ahead of the curve
- Explore how we can help you transition from traditional drug screening to rapid oral fluid with ease before the new law change takes effect in 2024.
Schedule A Call Today
Our team at Premier Biotech are prepared and ready to support this change with the go-to solution that will benefit your business in these changing time.
At the time of publication, all information is believed to be accurate. However, Premier Biotech reserves the right to continuously improve, update, and make changes due to changes in law or regulation, new performance characteristics and/or market conditions. V4. 03/01/2023