SPRINGFIELD — After Springfield’s mayor apologized for poorly plowed roads in February, Department of Public Works Director Christopher Cignoli said the problem was partly caused by weed.
But no, Cignoli’s staff wasn’t in a cannabis-induced stupor when snow fell.
The city has had a hard time hiring people who hold commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs), which are needed to operate plows and other heavy equipment. Some of the reason is the pay scale; some is due to a residency requirement.
“The other problem with CDLs is pot,” Cignoli said. “Someone can go out and drink heavily Friday night and they will pass a drug test on Monday. Someone who takes two puffs (of cannabis), they are delayed (from working) for 45 days.”
Nationwide, there is a shortage of drivers licensed to operate tractor-trailer trucks and heavy equipment. The legalization of cannabis in 24 states and Washington, D.C., is adding to that problem, especially since a low rate of unemployment means that people who hold licenses can get other jobs in trades where they are not required to pass drug tests.
“It is a long-standing issue,” said Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, a national cannabis advocacy organization formed in the 1970s. “(Federal) Department of Transportation statistics say 100,000 CDL drivers have tested positive for marijuana since 2020 and only 25% have sought to reapply for their licenses.”
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, an arm of the Department of Transportation and the lead agency that regulates commercial vehicle safety, looks for a variety of drugs in preemployment tests and in random drug checks to ensure drivers are operating safely.
Outdated testing
The problem: Testing for cannabis impairment through urine analysis is less than effective because the drug can remain in a person’s system for as long as 100 days for a heavy user; other experts say a month is typical for a regular user. Blood tests and saliva tests, which detect marijuana for one to three days, are better, but still do not accurately gauge impairment since people remain high for one to three hours after smoking and three to eight hours after ingesting it, Armentano said.
Because there is no cannabis equivalent to a breathalyzer test for alcohol, the best way to detect if someone is impaired on the job is to use performance tests. In those, an employee completes a baseline test of different tasks. Then, if the person is suspected of being impaired, the test can be repeated to show changes in performance, Armentano said.
The use of urinalysis to detect cannabis use is outdated, he says, and dates back to the 1980s. It is not about safety because it doesn’t detect if someone is impaired at that moment, he said. “The method for testing is obsolete.”
The Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration has done little to change the testing requirements, even in cases where people use it for medical purposes, he said. There is no exemption to medical marijuana use, even if the person has a doctor’s prescription or takes dronabinol, the only FDA-approved cannabinoid. A cannabinoid is a compound that includes active elements of cannabis.
The federal group is aware of the shortage. “We have met at the federal level and talked about the lack of drivers in general,” said Cicely L. Waters, communications director for the administration.
Those steps have not included updating drug testing regulations, she said.
In other steps, the agency announced about six months ago it would award more than $48 million in grants to increase CDL driver training through community colleges, expedite renewals and fund education programs for veterans, refugees and other underserved residents, she said.
Tracking issue
Officials with the offices of U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, say the issue hasn’t been on the legislative forefront.
But as states continue to legalize marijuana and the shortage of CDL drivers becomes critical, it may come up in the future.
Members of the Massachusetts Cannabis Coalition, a trade organization serving a variety of marijuana-based industries, have been discussing regulations about drug testing in the workplace with state legislators. But the issue of drug testing for CDL drivers is thorny, since cannabis is still illegal federally, said Ryan Dominguez, executive director of the coalition.
“It is something we will continue to have conversations about,” he said. “We will be tracking it.”
The issue is difficult to handle on the state level, since federal law on marijuana testing supersedes the state legalization of cannabis, said state Sen. Adam Gomez, D-Springfield, chairman of the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy.
“We have to discuss it as a committee to see if there is a way to handle it,” Gomez said.
He personally has friends and family members who are commercial drivers. Gomez said he knows they have to abstain from using cannabis to keep their jobs.
“For now, people have to make choices in life,” he said. “I do know on the medical side it has had great medicinal properties.”
The issue is difficult since it’s important to ensure people are sober while driving, especially when operating large commercial vehicles. The technology to measure active cannabis in one’s system isn’t available yet, Gomez said.
Urgent need
Businesses owners say something must to be done, since finding drivers continues to get harder and harder, hampering their work. In the Springfield Department of Public Works, 18 of the 137 available positions are vacant and many of those require CDLs. That means it takes longer to plow, sweep streets and do other work.
“It 100% affects our driver pool,” said Jeremy Procon, owner of Interstate Towing in Chicopee. “It is difficult. It seems everyone everywhere is smoking or eating brownies and cookies and some are using it for a sleep aid.”
Procon has 74 employees. All of his drivers are tested as a preemployment condition. Since he operates a lot of heavy equipment, including cranes needed at crash sites involving tractor trailer trucks, most also have CDLs.
After the preemployment test, workers with CDLs are placed in a large regional pool of license holders and officials randomly select a number of them to be regularly tested.
While Procon said he cannot legally ask job candidates if they use cannabis, he does tell them they must pass a preemployment drug screening. At least twice a month, a candidate will walk away from an interview after hearing that, even though the entry level pay for someone with a CDL is between $25 and $35 an hour. The company offers a comprehensive benefits package. Experienced employees can earn $120,000 to $150,000 a year.
Because of the length of time cannabis remains in one’s system, his drivers simply cannot use cannabis at any time, Procon said.
If an employee tests positive, they have to go through an expensive and arduous process to return to work, even though they may not have smoked cannabis for a month before the test, Procon said. “We have to offer counseling and put them in a program,” he said. “We have to pay unemployment and have them assigned to a certified counselor and they need a negative test before coming back.”
On top of that, they have to be screened weekly for some time.
In the case of a crash, it is an even bigger problem, especially if the driver tests positive in the aftermath, even if he or she wasn’t impaired. “It is a huge liability, so I tell my guys we can’t afford it,” he said.
With the inherent dangers of the job, there is no way his drivers can respond to a scene impaired. But Procon, who said he doesn’t smoke weed, thinks that whatever his employees do on their days off should be their own business. “I believe you should be able to consume cannabis and work here,” he said. “If you went out and drank on Friday you can drive no problem on Monday. But you can’t with this.”
At United Tractor Trailer School in Holyoke, one of the first discussions teachers have with students concerns the use of drugs and alcohol. Those who have used marijuana recently are recommended to wait to start classes until the drug has cleared their system, said Angel Bermudez, general manager.
Some come back — and many more don’t, he said.
Bermudez declined to elaborate on the issue, but said the curriculum contains plenty of lessons about drug and alcohol testing and instructors counsel and coach students if they need it.
“If you are in the industry, you can’t smoke marijuana. It is a very sensitive issue in the industry,” Bermudez said.
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