• The bill does not interfere with employers’ right to maintain a drug-free workplace. It allows for other kinds of tests that can indicate actual impairment on the job, such as computer-based performance tests and chemical tests for active THC in oral fluid or blood. The bill exempts employers subject to federal drug-testing rules, and workers in the construction trades.

• Cannabis is legal in California, and workers have a right to engage in legal activity while away from the job. Yet countless workers and job applicants are losing job opportunities or being fired because they test positive for legal, off-the-job use of marijuana on account of indiscriminate urine and hair metabolite tests.

• Metabolite tests don’t detect actual impairment, but rather the presence of non-psychoactive cannabis residues that stay in the system days and weeks after use, long after effects have faded.

• Testing or threatening to test bodily fluids for cannabis metabolites is the most common way that employers harass and discriminate against employees who lawfully use cannabis in the privacy of their own homes.  Studies have shown that black people are over twice as likely as white people to be reprimanded or fired for failing drug tests.

• Scientific studies have failed to show that urine testing is effective at preventing workplace accidents. Numerous studies have found that workers who test positive for metabolites have no higher risk of workplace accidents.

• The bill has union support from United Food and Commercial Workers, California Nurses Association, CA Board of Registered Nursing, and UDW/AFSCME Local 3930. It is also supported by the California Employment Lawyers Association,  United Cannabis Business Association, Cannabis Equity Policy Council, Americans for Safe Access, and California Cannabis Industry Association, among others.

• We worked with the Chamber of Commerce on their objections, and added language to clarify that oral swab testing can be used for pre-employment testing, and implementation will be delayed until January 1, 2024 to ensure that employers can access a supply of oral swab tests.

• Twenty-one states currently have laws protecting employment rights for medical cannabis users, and five states (Nevada, New York, New Jersey, Montana and Connecticut) plus several cities (New York City, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Baltimore, Kansas City MO, Rochester NY and Richmond VA) also protect recreational cannabis consumers’ employment rights. California, a global leader in progressive ideology, still has no protections for its workers who consume cannabis.