Amazon announced it will stop testing the majority of job seekers for marijuana.
The change in policy means the company will treat marijuana similar to how they treat alcohol; while they will not include it in pre-employment screenings, they will "continue to do impairment checks on the job and will test for all drugs and alcohol after any incident," according to a blog post.
The announcement also included Amazon's support of an effort in Congress to legalize marijuana on the federal level. More than a dozen states have enacted laws in the last few years that legalize the use of marijuana.
"We’re adjusting our drug testing policy. In the past, like many employers, we’ve disqualified people from working at Amazon if they tested positive for marijuana use. However, given where state laws are moving across the U.S., we’ve changed course," Dave Clark, Amazon's CEO of the worldwide consumer division, said in a blog post.
"We will no longer include marijuana in our comprehensive drug screening program for any positions not regulated by the Department of Transportation, and will instead treat it the same as alcohol use."
The blog post outlines how Amazon's public policy team "actively" supports the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2021. The MORE Act is federal legislation that would legalize marijuana at the federal level, expunge criminal records, and invest in impacted communities.
The measure was introduced in last year's Congress but failed to move forward in either the House or Senate. It was reintroduced Friday in the House.
