California law changes, set to take place in 2024, will have employers moving away from urine testing and in favor of oral drug testing. California employers will soon be prohibited in many situations from discriminating against employees for off-duty cannabis use that may show up as non-psychoactive metabolites in a traditional urine drug test.
The California Fair Employment and Housing Act officially added new anti-discrimination protections for marijuana users, effective January 2024. (You can read more about those discrimination protections here.) Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the new law, AB 2188, in September 2022. This law makes it unlawful for most employers to discriminate against a person for hiring, termination, or for any term or condition of employment based on drug testing where cannabis (THC) metabolites are used for detection. Exceptions are within the construction trades and positions that require federal background investigation or security clearance.
According to the DOT, they are “proposing to add oral fluid testing as an alternative to urine-based testing. DOT states that each specimen type offers different benefits to assist employers in detecting and deterring illegal drug use, especially when windows of detection are taken into consideration. Specifically, DOT’s proposed rule states that the oral fluid testing window of detection for marijuana is up to 24 hours, whereas urine testing’s window of detection for marijuana is 3 to 67 days. DOT invites comments on the accuracy of these windows of detection. If accurate, oral fluid testing would provide employers with a method for detecting recent use of marijuana, which will be beneficial for reasonable suspicion testing and post-accident testing.” You can read more on that here.
Stat-Technologies offers a wide variety of Oral fluid testing products including the OralTox, T-Cube, Orasure and more. View all our Oral Drugs of Abuse testing products here! For more information, you can also reach out to your local territory manager.