Employers cite hiring difficulty as reason for dropping pre-hire cannabis tests
The share of urine tests that came back positive for marijuana rose to 4.4% last year, up from 3.9% in 2021, according to Quest Diagnostics, which conducted about eight million workforce drug tests in 2025. Hair tests, which can detect drug use as far back as 90 days, showed more widespread use: about 15% of workers screened that way tested positive for marijuana, a nearly 60% jump from 2021. Random hair screenings were even higher, at 21%.
Why employers are dropping pre-hire screens
Fewer employers are screening job candidates for marijuana at all, in part because it makes it tougher to find enough qualified applicants, said Todd Logsdon, a partner at employment law firm Fisher Phillips. “I’ve had other employers tell me, ‘If I test for that, I’m not gonna have any applicants,’” Logsdon said. “They’re being very choosy about which role they test for.”
In a 2024 survey of nearly 1,000 employers, Fisher Phillips found about half did not test for cannabis in the pre-hire process, often for that reason. Among those that did test, 44% said they faced recruiting challenges and nearly a quarter said they were considering loosening the policy. Employers outside trucking, construction and other safety-sensitive industries have come to view marijuana as akin to alcohol — a concern only if workers are indulging on the clock, the Journal reported. Major employers including Citigroup, Amazon, AutoNation, and Home Depot have dropped pre-hire marijuana testing for most positions.
State and federal policy backdrop
A patchwork of different state rules around testing workers for marijuana has complicated the issue for employers. New York prohibits testing of most job applicants and workers, while at least two dozen states have established employment protections for workers and job applicants who use medical marijuana, according to the Marijuana Policy Project. This spring, the Trump administration began the process of reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug, which could eventually affect employers’ drug-testing policies.
Safety-sensitive roles still require testing
Employers hiring for safety-sensitive roles — those more likely to rely on hair tests that detect patterns of longer-term use — are unlikely to give up the full panel of drug testing any time soon. “They want to make sure there’s no ‘lifestyle’ drug detection before they hire a person to drive the truck, or a school bus,” said Bill Current, a drug-testing industry consultant. For many companies, Logsdon said, the safest bet might be to ditch pre-hire marijuana screening and focus on monitoring for on-the-job impairment instead.
Broader drug-panel context
Overall, one in five workers in the general workforce tested positive for any kind of drug use in the hair screens, according to Quest. Those testing positive for cocaine rose to 4% in 2025, up from 2.7% in 2021, while positivity rates for amphetamine and methamphetamine also increased. The percentage of workers who tested positive for fentanyl in urine tests fell by half, to 0.28% from 0.55% in 2024, the Quest data showed.