DOT Medical Marijuana- (DOT testing / drug testing) Kansas City

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 received many questions about the DOJ advice to Federal prosecutors. This advice concerns criminal cases and may affect the Department of Transportation’s rules. These rules are about marijuana use by safety-sensitive transportation workers. This list includes various jobs. 

• Pilots
• School bus drivers
• Truck drivers
• Train engineers
• Subway operators
• Aircraft maintenance staff
• Security personnel
• Ship captains
• Pipeline emergency responders

And 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.)

Medical Review Officers will not label a drug test as negative. This is true even if a doctor recommends that the employee use "medical marijuana." Please note that marijuana remains a drug listed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. It is not acceptable for any safety-sensitive employee who must take drug tests to use marijuana.

We want to assure the traveling public that our transportation system is the safest it can possibly be.

Office of the Secretary of Transportation
Office of Drug and Alcohol
Policy and Compliance
Department of Transportation