Stoned At Work

Marijuana use remains illegal in New York State, but the New York City council has voted to ban employers from testing job applicants for pot use as a condition of employment. Though the new law exempts certain employers from the ban, including transportation firms and federal contractors obligated to test for drugs, the council’s action is virtually unprecedented. Some courts in other states have ruled that workers using marijuana under medical supervision can’t be fired, but no other jurisdiction has so broadly banned preemployment testing. Advocates say that the new law will end the “stigma” associated with pot use, and they claim that testing for marijuana isn’t a good predictor of employee performance. But as with many of the arguments for legalization, these are dubious claims. The council’s action ignores substantial and growing evidence from scientific journals of pot’s negative effects, especially on younger people. And by telling employers whom they must hire, the council disregards the costs that marijuana use can inflict on a workplace.

Pot use in the workplace is nothing new. Federal contractors have been required to test for it since 1988, and testing has spread to many private-sector companies—especially those in industries where workplace accidents are dangerous and costly, including construction, manufacturing, and health care. By 2011, one survey suggested that as many as half of all employers conducted drug screening. There is compelling reason for the widespread testing. Early studies, including one 1990 report on postal workers, found that pot users were significantly more likely to cause accidents, miss work, and sustain injuries on the job than nonusers. A 2012 study published in the medical journal Addiction found that regular pot smokers displayed significantly less commitment to work than those who did not smoke.

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