ASSOCIATIONINSIGHT
Portable Sanitation Association International News
BIWEEKLY EDITION NOVEMBER 11, 2020
Page 14 Continued on page 15
So it is plain that these headaches for drivers' employers are not imagined and will not be going away any time
soon. That's because federal law forbids both medical and recreational consumption of marijuana. Any portable
sanitation company with drivers and trucks that fall under federal Department of Transportation (DOT)/Federal
Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) mandates must ensure that their drivers are clean for that drug—
among many—to the best of their ability. (See a full list of federally prohibited substances in the DOT handbook
on drug and alcohol testing.)
Is It Ever Okay for Portable Sanitation Drivers to Use Pot?
Trucking industry leaders realize that legalization means a
good many drivers, especially younger ones, are likely to use
pot. They know that employers will have to adapt in order to
assure a decent pool of applicants for driving positions. The
sticking point, at present, is the DOT which remains firm in
prohibiting the use of cannabis by commercial drivers under the
Department's jurisdiction.
That said, in theory, a portable sanitation company operating
in a state where the use of marijuana is legal could sidestep these issues under certain conditions. To do that the
company would:
• have to use drivers operating only in that state and never in any other since the FMCSA applies and DOT has
jurisdiction when interstate commerce occurs;
• use only trucks that fall below the weight limits requiring federal DOT/FMCSA oversight of commercial
vehicles;
• create and enforce policies that specify how much pot use is acceptable for operating a motor vehicle on
behalf of the company;
• find an insurance carrier willing to write a policy for coverage that accounts for the risk of employing drivers
who smoke weed during their time off.
If all of these conditions were met, the portable sanitation company could—theoretically—allow their drivers to
use pot when they are not at work. In practice, at least right now, it would be something to approach with extreme
caution and abundant legal advice.
One Toke over the [Imaginary] Line
The fact is, even if your company doesn't fall under DOT/FMCSA
rules and you WANT to consider hiring or retaining drivers that
occasionally smoke pot or ingest edibles legally, there is simply little
precedent yet for how to "do this" with marijuana in the same way as
there is with alcohol.
Testing for drug impairment is problematic due to the limitations of
drug-detecting technology and the lack of an agreed-upon limit to
determine impairment. The nationally recognized level of impairment
for drunken driving is .08 g/ml blood alcohol concentration. But
there is no similar national standard for drugged driving. There are other complications too.
• Drugs do not affect people consistently—a high concentration may significantly impair one person but not
another.
Legal Cannabis—Driving the Portable Sanitation Industry Crazy …continued from page 2
