State government faces a continued hiring crunch but is rejecting more prospective workers for testing positive for marijuana — a drug Michigan voters legalized for recreational use in a 2018 referendum.
In 2022, the state rejected 151 job applicants who had already received conditional offers of employment, after they tested positive for marijuana, according to the Office of State Employer.
That is just over triple the 49 failed marijuana tests in 2018, the last year marijuana was illegal under state law, and more than double the 71 failed marijuana tests resulting from the state hiring process in 2021. The percentage of prospective state employees who tested positive for marijuana also roughly tripled between 2018 and 2022, going from 0.55 percent to 1.46 percent, records show.
All potential state employees must pass a drug test that includes testing for marijuana and other drugs before they are hired, said Kurt Weiss, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Civil Service.
Even the director of Michigan’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency, whose job includes stimulating recreational marijuana business growth, has to pass a test showing no marijuana use in order to get the job.
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