President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order expediting the reclassification of marijuana as a less dangerous substance, giving the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the green light to study its medicinal value.
In May 2024, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) published a notice of proposed rulemaking to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug. Schedule I substances are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse; as such, marijuana currently shares a classification with heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and ecstasy. Schedule III is defined as containing drugs with a moderate-to-low potential for physical and psychological dependence. Under this classification, marijuana would be grouped alongside medications such as testosterone and products containing low doses of codeine.
Trumpās action does not federally legalize marijuana, and rescheduling to Schedule III does not legalize it for recreational use. Schedule III drugs still require a prescription.
Will truck drivers be able to use marijuana?
At the state level, marijuana is legal in 40 of 50 states for medical use and 24 states for recreational use. The current national patchwork of marijuana regulations has made the pass/fail nature of drug tests less black and white, especially for professions that are regulated to a lower tolerance for substance use, such as transportation.
"While we do not hold a formal position on marijuana legalization or deregulation, we are concerned about the safety risks of rescheduling marijuana without explicit safeguards to preserve the testing authority and technical requirements that apply to DOT-regulated, safety-sensitive workers," American Trucking Associationsā Vice President of Safety Policy Brenna Lyles said in a statement Thursday after Trump signed the order. "A safe driver is a qualified driver, and a qualified driver is drug- and alcohol-free. Motor carriers must retain reliable, enforceable tools to ensure they are not putting unqualified drivers behind the wheel."
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's office told CCJ Thursday night that while marijuana is being federally rescheduled to Schedule III drug, "safety-sensitive positions will still be barred from ingesting the drug."
"It remains unacceptable for any safetyāsensitive employee subject to drug testing under the Department of Transportationās drug testing regulations to use marijuana," the agency spokesperson said. "Positions include: pilots, school bus drivers, truck drivers, train engineers, subway operators, aircraft maintenance personnel, transit fireāarmed security personnel, ship captains, and pipeline emergency response personnel, among others."
That mirrors a statement made last year by Pete ButtigiegāTransportation Secretary during the Biden administrationāwho said during a House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure hearing last year that the DOJās proposal to move marijuana to Schedule III does not impact DOT drug-screening rules. For private individuals performing safety-sensitive functions, Buttigieg noted that marijuana is identified by name in regulations rather than by its schedule or classification. "So even if it moves in its classification, we do not believe that would have a direct impact on that authority," he said at the time.
However, the DOT, via rule 49 CFR Part 40, isn't the only regulatory body responsible for the oversight of truck driver drug testing; it shares that responsibility with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (49 CFR Part 382) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is more broadly responsible for workplace drug testing.
Among Lyles' concernsāāconcerns shared by National Transportation Safety Boardāā is that conflict could potentially arise among these agencies that creates an opening that allows marijuana users to fall through.
Current DOT drug and alcohol testing requirements are governed and limited in their testing authority by HHSā Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs, which allow regulated employers to test only for drugs listed in Schedule I or II of the Controlled Substances Actāarguably stripping DOT and FMCSA of their authority to test regulated drivers for marijuana in a DOT drug panel, noted Brandon Wiseman, President of Trucksafe Consulting and a partner at Childress Law.
Marijuana accounts for nearly 60% of all positive drug tests among commercial drivers subject to DOT requirements. Lyles warned that without clear measures to ensure the DOTās testing program retains and is equipped to execute its authority, "such a federal policy shift could have serious consequences for highway safety and the integrity of the national transportation network."
"This risk is exacerbated by the fact that there is currently no proven, widely accepted standard to determine marijuana impairment at the roadside or before a driver begins operating a vehicle, making it far more difficult to prevent impaired driving," she added.
