Home Depot ends marijuana testing and limits screenings for most employees, internal memo shows – Home Depot (NYSE:HD)

Home Depot Inc HDone of the largest employers in the United States, plans to eliminate marijuana testing for prospective employees and stop drug testing for the majority of its workforce.

The wholesaler, which employs about 400,000 people at more than 2,000 locations across the country, announced internally on Monday that marijuana would be removed from all drug lists at all of the company’s U.S. stores, according to a memo obtained by Marijuana Moment. The changes are set to take effect Sept. 1.

According to the document, cannabis will be removed from all drug tests in the United States, including those conducted after workplace accidents or when there is reasonable suspicion that a worker is impaired. However, workers who fall under the supervision of the Department of Transportation will not be affected by these changes.

Home Depot distributed the HR memo to employees.

“Home Depot continually evaluates its policies, the external environment and benchmarks with other companies to ensure we remain competitive while complying with local, state and federal laws,” said the memo, the contents of which were reportedly first shared on a Reddit forum affiliated with Home Depot.

The largest company to date to eliminate cannabis screening

With the new initiative, Home Depot becomes one of the largest private companies in the country to forgo cannabis screening.

Amazonwith a global workforce of 1.5 million people, made headlines in 2021 when it announced it would stop testing many of its employees for marijuana and promised to lobby for cannabis reform in Washington.

Also read: Do big companies drug test their employees? A look at Amazon, Target, McDonald’s, Walmart, Dollar General and more

States are also implementing drug testing reforms

Some states have passed laws to protect workers from disciplinary action for cannabis use.

In California, employers are prohibited from asking job applicants about their past marijuana use, and most companies are prohibited from disciplining employees for legally using weed on their own time.

Washington state prohibits companies from refusing to hire people because of their past cannabis use, but the law does not protect workers from penalties they face for using marijuana outside of work.

Other states and jurisdictions, including Connecticut, Montana, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Washington, DC, have expanded their policies to restrict cannabis testing for both new and existing employees.

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