HB 2673 - State Employee Drug Testing Bill - Support

Drug Testing is for illegal drugs. This bill State workers who are drug tested by the State of Hawai'i as part of a state contract shall be exempt from a positive test result if they follow all the medical marijuana requirements found in State of Hawai'i rules.

On the topic of employee drug testing, the State of Hawaii Department of Public Safety's Patient Information for the Authorized Medical Use of Marijuana states:

Employees who test positive for marijuana on a drug test, which is required under U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) rules, will be reported positive whether or not an employee has a certificate issued by the State to utilize marijuana for medical purposes. Because the Department of Transportation is part of the federal goverrnment, the DOT rules do not recognize medical marijuana as a medical explanation for a positive test result.

Last year, the state of Hawaii made drug testing of teachers a non-negotiable demand during talks with the Hawaii State Teachers Association, which represents about 13,000 teachers. Though the program was met with resistance by some, 61.3 percent of more than 8,000 union members voted in May to ratify a contract giving them 4 percent raises in the current and next school years.

Regardless of the Federal Government, and in turn the U.S. Department of Transportation refusing to acknowledge truth and science by continuing to considering marijuana to have no medical value, the state legislature approved citizens of Hawai'i to utilize marijuana as a medicine. The state legislature understands that patients use medical marijuana to help sleep at night, to reduce pain, and to lower the intake of pharmaceutical drugs that have dangerous side effects. With this in mind, legal medical marijuana patients should be afforded the same protections as legal pharmaceutical users when drug tested under a state program not involving the federal government.