ATA and marijuana

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The ATA wants intervention by the federal government for uniformed impairment rules.
Part of this is the fact that marijuana stays in the system for 30 days, yet after the first day your really not impaired. Much the same as booze. You might feel bad after a hangover, but 24 hours later you are fine to drive.

Trucking wants to take marijuana head-on

More than a quarter of Americans live in a jurisdiction that allows legal marijuana. Weed’s growing popularity in the U.S. is an increasing and complicated concern for the trucking industry.

American Trucking Associations is looking to take the lead in how U.S. businesses adapt to legal weed, noting that there is more to learn about its effects. The ATA Board of Directors created new policies this week that calls for a common-sense approach to liberalizing marijuana laws — in the name of safety. And since every state has different cannabis laws, ATA wants the federal government to change its approach.

“We’ve got to get the federal people involved in this so we have uniformed impairment rules across our nation,” Harold Sumerford Jr., CEO of J&M Tank Lines, told a luncheon crowd at ATA’s Management Conference & Exhibition.

The ATA has been pushing for the government to allow — and use — alternative drug testing methods, such as hair-testing. It also has back the federal mandate to develop a drug and alcohol clearhinghouse. FMCSA recently opened up registration for the clearinghouse ahead of the Jan. 6 implementation date for the new regulation.

https://www.trucker.com/regulations/...marijuana-head

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Re: ATA and marijuana

This the second part of a three-part series on legal marijuana’s emerging effects on trucking and transportation.

Marijuana impairment lingers longer than intoxication

Alcohol impairment is binary: You are either drunk or sober. But marijuana impairment might linger longer: You are still impaired even after intoxication. This is yet another hurdle for the trucking industry as it grapples with an evolving North America with more legal cannabis.

Adding to the complications of legal pot is the inability of science to accurately determine if a driver is currently under the influence with the same accuracy as alcohol detection.

Data on marijuana and its effects on U.S. roadways “is all over the place and you have people who manipulate that data to serve their own purposes,” Dr. Todd Simo, chief medical officer for HireRight, an employee background screening service, told a group of trucking executives and leaders during last week’s American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition in San Diego.

https://www.trucker.com/safety/marij...r-intoxication

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Re: ATA and marijuana

This is the third part of this series.

How to deter drivers from using marijuana (and other drugs)

With legal marijuana more available than any time in history, how does the trucking industry deter drivers from partaking? Some fleets are finding that the threat of intense screening can be enough to keep the right drivers clean.
The states that legalized recreational weed had the largest increase in positive tests, according to an American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) study published earlier this year. Since that study, Illinois has joined the other 10 and the District of Columbia where marijuana is legal without a prescription.
More than 1-in-5 of every American uses marijuana, according to a Yahoo News/Marist Poll in 2017. That would be about 55 million people. Of that group, more than half (63%) use cannabis regularly. More than a quarter of Americans now live in a jurisdiction that permits recreational marijuana. So more and more fleets are looking for ways to deter their drivers and other safety-sensitive employees from joining the millions of other Americans who are taking advantage of the liberalizing of cannabis laws.

https://www.trucker.com/safety/how-d...nd-other-drugs