The National Transportation Safety Board responded to a proposed rule by the Drug Enforcement Administration to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act, warning the rule could imperil federally required drug testing for airline pilots, bus and truck drivers, and many others in safety-sensitive positions.

The NTSB is concerned that the proposed move would prohibit continued federally required testing of safety-sensitive transportation employees for marijuana use because laboratories certified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for such testing are not authorized to test for Schedule III controlled substances.

NTSB’s Response

In a response to the proposed rulemaking, the NTSB urged the DEA to “ensure that any final rule to reschedule marijuana does not compromise marijuana testing under DOT and HHS procedures applicable to safety-sensitive transportation employees. Such employees include airline pilots, airline maintenance workers, bus and truck drivers, locomotive engineers, subway train operators, ship captains, pipeline operators, personnel transporting hazardous materials, air traffic controllers, and others.”

According to the NTSB, moving marijuana to Schedule III without taking steps to ensure that marijuana testing remains within the scope of pre-employment, random, reasonable suspicion, and post-accident drug testing would create a safety “blind spot.”

“Removal of marijuana testing from DOT and HHS drug testing panels for safety-sensitive transportation employees would remove a layer of safety oversight that employers have been managing for decades, and it would prevent DOT and HHS drug testing from acting as a deterrent to marijuana use by those employees,” the NTSB said. “Additionally, the NTSB would no longer have DOT and federal workplace marijuana test results as evidence in our investigations.”

​A copy of the full comments can be found here.