Companies Eliminating Drug Tests Amid Job Shortages, Pot Legalization
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Tue, 03/06/2018
Employers struggling to fill jobs have begun to relax or eliminate drug testing requirements amid increased marijuana legalization and a tightening U.S. job market.
Drug testing has been standard procedure for decades across a variety of industries, ranging from finance to manufacturing to healthcare – which several employers have begun to eschew.
Las Vegas based Excellence Health Inc., for example, stopped testing employees for marijuana two years ago – and completely dropped drug tests in the beginning of 2018 for employees on the pharmaceutical side of the business. “We don’t care what people do in their free time,” said company spokesperson Liam Meyer. “We want to help these people, instead of saying: ‘Hey, you can’t work for us because you used a substance.” The company also provides a hotline for workers who might be struggling with drug issues.
In February, AutoNation Inc. – the largest auto dealer in the country, announced it would no longer refuse job applicants who tested positive for marijuana, while the Denver Post ended pre-employment drug testing last September for all positions that don’t require safety precautions.
As the Daily Caller reported in February, the manufacturing industry in Ohio has experienced stunted growth because many potential employees are also addicted to drugs – primarily opioids.
“Steve Staub, who runs Staub Manufacturing Solutions in Ohio, attended the State of the Union address Tuesday as a special guest to President Donald Trump. While there, aside from participating in the pageantry, Staub discussed problems in the manufacturing industry and business in general with the president.
Staub mentioned to Trump the toll the opioid crisis has had on business’ ability to fill jobs. About two million Americans nationwide are addicted to the drug. The crisis has been particularly hard on Staub’s home state of Ohio, were thousands of job applicants are turned away because of substance abuse,” reports the Caller.
“In Ohio alone, they have about 20,000 available jobs in manufacturing. In Dayton, Ohio, where I’m from, we have about 4,000 jobs available today in manufacturing that we can’t fill,” Staub told TheDCNF.
“We can’t get people to pass a drug test.”
The Rest…HERE
