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takyon writes:

Weed the people? Companies relax drug-testing policies in bid to attract more workers

Near-full employment and changing attitudes about cannabis are prompting some companies to drop pre-employment drug screenings for marijuana, experts in human resources say. "It is happening," said Brian Kropp, group vice president at Gartner's HR practice. "In all the conversations we've been having with executives about this issue, more and more of them are dropping it," he said.

According to attorney James Reidy, chair of the labor and employment group at the law firm of Sheehan Phinney Bass & Green, an increasingly common viewpoint among employers is: "It's an artificial barrier to employment. ... It's no different than having a beer Sunday night."

[...] A 2011 survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 57 percent of employers conducted drug tests on all job candidates, a number which likely has fallen since then, extrapolations from smaller studies suggest. A Colorado survey conducted by the Mountain States Employers Council (now called the Employers Council) in 2014, the year the state legalized marijuana for recreational adult use, found that 77 percent of employers said they conducted drug testing, a figure that fell to 62 percent three years later.

Also at Southeast Missourian (AP).

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