Workplace Policies

Now that marijuana use is legal in many states, employers need a way to distinguish very recent use from past use.

“’We don’t want to know what you did a week ago, or two weeks ago, because it doesn’t impact your impairment today,’ said Warren Tolman, director of business development for Hound Labs.”

“The thing that’s groundbreaking about this test is it can distinguish recent use from historic use,” Mr. Boxer said. “An employee in many states has a legal right to use cannabis.”

Old tests for marijuana looked for trace elements in things like blood, urine, and hair. But legalization changed all of this. Suddenly marijuana testing became a spectrum, with the need to delineate between the person who threw five on it a week ago, but who still has evidence of weed in their bodily fluids, and the person who’s dangerously blazed right this moment.

“I actually do see it as benefiting all parties,” he told the Bee. Most tests currently used by employers reveal marijuana use stretching back as far as 30 days, meaning workers could be penalized in some cases even if they are not high on the job.

“It’s a game changer,” said John Hudak, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has written extensively on marijuana legalization.