Products derived from cannabis are showing up on more and more drug screens, even when they are trying to avoid getting high by using CBD.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — While attitudes and laws around marijuana are changing, for people in specific jobs, using marijuana products that get you high isn’t allowed, and having it in your system could get you into serious trouble.
"We do probably anywhere from 20 to 50 people a day, said Jeff Sims, president of Xpert Diagnostics, a drug testing company tucked into a professional building in North Little Rock. "We do multiple types of testing, including federally mandated testing."
That steady stream of people ordered to get testing for a new job or to stay on the job keeps Sims busy, but modern technology can quickly get them in, out and on the job.
But after 30 years of testing job applicants and others suspected of drug use, Sims sees a new obstacle surfacing in these high-tech test tubes.
"It is definitely marijuana," Sims said. "That is the most dominant drug we pick up."
A new study from testing giant Quest Diagnostics found that marijuana positivity among the U.S. workforce has gone up 45% over the past five years—no surprise, as it becomes more accepted and legalized.
However, for those still required to be tested for marijuana, there’s a potential tripwire for those looking for the benefits of the drug without the high.
"When the Hemp Act was passed, this just opened up a whole new industry of gummies, and CBD oils and things like that," said Sims, referring to the 2021 Arkansas law that allowed products made from cannabis that don’t contain chemicals that get a user high.And that whole new industry created by the law exists almost entirely in a gray area of legality.In Arkansas, we have a tightly regulated medical marijuana market. Cannabis producers create products containing the chemical THC, an ingredient that gets a person high.Those growers can now supply a wide-open industry, selling products made from the same plant, but grown without THC. The active chemical there is CBD, which is considered legal because it doesn’t get […]
Drug tests can’t tell difference between CBD and THC, putting consumers at risk
