Cannabis competition creates carrier conundrum

For years, after crossing into Michigan from Ohio on Interstate 75, drivers would be overwhelmed with billboards touting god, guns, beef jerky—and, if you’re injured, telling you to call Joumana. But in the years since Michigan legalized recreational marijuana, most of those billboards dotting the farmlands between Toledo and Detroit are ads for rival marijuana dispensaries.

Since Michigan began permitting recreational weed sales in 2019, legalization has spread across northern states. More than half of the 23 states allowing recreational sales made it legal this decade. (Another 13 states permit medical marijuana.) Michigan recently overtook California as the largest cannabis market in the U.S. The legalization movement is winning—state by state.

See also: National Truck Driver Appreciation Week: How the industry is celebrating

“In 2023, 41% of drivers in the United States lived in a state where recreational marijuana was legal,” Jeffrey Short, VP at the American Transportation Research Institute, told FleetOwner Editor Jeremy Wolfe for this week’s feature on trucking’s marijuana problem. “In 2019, it was half that number. It’s quite a big jump to all of a sudden happen.”

A year ago, another ATRI study found that 41.4% of truck drivers lived in recreational-legal states—a percentage that more than doubled in four years. That number is growing as our culture changes on local levels but not federally. So, while a driver’s neighbors might be able to live by their state laws and regulations, professional truck drivers must abide by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

While drivers testing positive for marijuana is down year over year, according to the latest Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse data, marijuana is still the most common drug detected in drivers. About six in 10 fleet managers are also seeing more potential drivers not get jobs either because they test positive in pre-employment screenings or “walk out” when faced with taking a test. 

While law enforcement has been able to test drivers’ alcohol-related sobriety for years, there is no accepted scientific way to see if a driver is stoned. Marijuana evidence can live in a human for months, which could push occasional users to other professions, including driving jobs that don’t require drug testing.

The 2023 ATRI study notes: “The federal prohibition of marijuana use by CDL-holders has been highlighted as a potential disincentive for drivers to stay in the industry, and it has even been argued that loosening the restrictions on marijuana use would make the industry more attractive and widen the potential labor pool.”

We’re not here to argue for or against marijuana. But it’s obviously not making running a fleet easier. Nor is it making the roads safer, as Truckload Carrier Association VP David Heller notes in his Safety 411 column, citing a 2022 study that found a 5.8% increase in injury crash rates and a 4.1% increase in fatal rates in five states that legalize recreational marijuana.  

Since that study, many more states have legalized weed, and more are considering it this election season. This will only complicate the trucking industry’s driver hiring and retention struggles. Because if you live in a legalized state or if you travel around the country, you can’t avoid the cannabis companies that want you to buy their goods. What is trucking to do?

New York City recently gave up pre-employment and random testing for marijuana use, basically allowing its emergency service workers to use marijuana unless they were suspected of using it while on duty. If more localities continue to wave the white flag on cannabis, it could make it harder for fleets to compete in the job market. 

It’s a problem without a simple solution for trucking and roadway safety. 

By the way, the last time I crossed into Michigan, some billboards for The Jerky Outlet still stood along I-75. Unlike the trucking industry, the jerky industry has probably not been hurt by marijuana legalization.