Amazon recently announced it will be relaxing its policy on drug testing, removing its enforcement on some employees who consume. As a result, any employee who works outside of the company’s department of transportation will no longer receive screening for cannabis.
Employees in that department, like delivery drivers, for example, will still be tested for cannabis. Before this news, job applicants testing positive for weed would have been disqualified from working at the e-commerce giant.
Amazon: Earth’s Best Employer?
The newly relaxed approach to Amazon’s drug testing policy comes along with an initiative. CEO of Worldwide Consumers Dave Clark is calling it a goal to become “Earth’s Best Employer.”
Despite this, it’s no secret that Amazon has faced harsh criticism for its treatment of workers in the past. Some warehouses even punished their employees for taking bathroom breaks. This newly relaxed cannabis policy coupled with their recent initiative WorkingWell attempts to fix that.
Amazon’s WorkingWell initiative implements an employee program that includes a mental health kiosk, healthy snacks, and guided meditation. In addition to wage increases and their new approach to cannabis testing, the hope is that this will re-define the stereotypes of working at Amazon.
Amazon Supports Decriminalization of Cannabis
CEO Dave Clark says Amazon supports cannabis decriminalization and has encouraged other companies to do the same. Clark also publicly stated the company’s policy division “actively supports” the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2021 (MORE Act).
So are Clark and the Amazon policy team actually in support of ending the antiquated, destructive war on cannabis? Or are they simply adapting to a changing labor market impacted by recreational cannabis legalization? In 2020, around 7 million employee drug tests were administered. 2.7% of them resulted in a positive test for cannabis, according to Wall Street Journal. This number is up almost a full percentage point since 2016, a natural occurrence when cannabis policy reform occurs. Whether Clark and Co.’s public support for cannabis is ‘PR speak’ or actually genuine, is still left up to speculation.
Photo by Remy Gieling on Unsplash
Sign of Good Things to Come?
The world’s largest employer is acknowledging that the average, responsible cannabis consumer shouldn’t have what they do off the clock held against them. After all, this is a seemingly positive thing, and perhaps a subtle, yet important win for cannabis advocates. Hopefully, we will see more large corporations get on board with Amazon’s new stance on testing for THC. The way employers view off-the-clock cannabis consumption should align with the way most companies have viewed alcohol for so many years.
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