Buttigieg: Pot Rescheduling Won’t Affect Testing

A proposal to lower marijuana’s drug classification would not impact drug testing, according to America’s transportation secretary. 

During a June 27 House Transportation Committee meeting, Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the Department of Transportation (DOT) would still be able to test drivers and safety-sensitive workers for the drug, regardless of its classification. 

That’s because marijuana is “identified by name, not be reference to one of those classes,” Buttigieg said. 

The Drug Enforcement Agency and the Department of Justice proposed in the Federal Register on May 21 that marijuana be dropped from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug. Thus far, the proposal has received over 27,000 comments. 

“Our understanding of the rescheduling of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III is that it would not alter DOT's marijuana testing requirements with respect to the regulated community,” he told the committee. 

The transportation secretary also said he and his team will “continue to evaluate any indirect impacts that reclassification might have.”