The multinational company is adjusting a few of its previously established drug testing policies.
Dave Clark, Amazon’s CEO of Worldwide Consumer, relayed in a message to the company’s U.S. operations employees that a growing number of states enacting marijuana legalization was a key inspiration for the decision. Marijuana does remain illegal at the federal level, which explains the regulated by the Department of Transportation addendum.
“In the past, like many employers, we’ve disqualified people from working at Amazon if they tested positive for marijuana use,” Clark said in the message. “However, given where state laws are moving across the U.S., we’ve changed course. We will no longer include marijuana in our comprehensive drug screening program for any positions not regulated by the Department of Transportation, and will instead treat it the same as alcohol use. We will continue to do impairment checks on the job and will test for all drugs and alcohol after any incident.”
BIG: Amazon will stop drug testing many workers for marijuana and will also actively lobby Congress to pass a federal legalization bill.
The move to treat cannabis “the same as alcohol use” from one of the U.S.’s largest employers will have a huge impacthttps://t.co/QnkI643NV2 pic.twitter.com/VXaOMjPqcj
— Tom Angell 🌳📰ⓥ (@tomangell) June 1, 2021
In addition, Amazon’s public policy team will also be “actively supporting” the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2021, which was introduced by congressional leaders in May.
Paul Armentano, the deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, noted that Amazon’s decision marks “a reflection of today’s changing cultural landscape.”
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