More Colorado businesses dropping pot from pre-employment drug tests
Marijuana testing by Colorado businesses has slowly declined over the past two years as 7 percent dropped the drug from pre-employment tests while 3 percent removed it from all drug tests.
The results of a December survey by the Mountain States Employers Council marks a shift from its 2014 survey the year recreational consumption of pot became legal when one in five employers reported implementing more stringent drug-testing policies. But this doesnt necessarily mean businesses are OK with their employees smoking weed.
Its because we have low unemployment, said Curtis Graves, an attorney with the Mountain States Employers Council. They may prefer a zero-tolerance approach. From a business perspective, they just cant afford to be as choosy now.
He speculated that some employers would resume testing for marijuana if the unemployment rate ticked up to 6 or 7 percent from 3 percent in December.
MSEC sent out surveys to 2,933 businesses and received 609 back, almost double the sample size of the 2014 survey, when 1,648 companies were polled and 334 responded.
About 10 percent of companies in the Denver and Boulder areas considered a single region in the survey dropped marijuana from their pre-employment tests and 2 percent removed the drug it from all drug testing. About 9 percent of the companies from Pueblo that responded omitted marijuana from pre-employment screening.
In resort areas, 8 percent of businesses removed marijuana from all drug tests, including pre-employment.
Drug testing in general is down across ...
