Amazon has said it will further relax its marijuana policy for employees and is gearing up to support national legislation to legalize the drug. Citing its decision from June 2021, the US e-commerce giant said it has “reinstated employment eligibility” for former employees and applicants who have been terminated or deferred during random or pre-employment marijuana screenings . It said screening job applicants for cannabis makes it harder for the company to expand its workforce. Amazon said it wants to help reform America’s cannabis policy as it seeks to “be the best employer on earth.”
of amazon Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of Human Resources said in a blog post That the company was making these changes for three reasons and outlined them.
Citing the first reason, Galetti said that an increasing number of US states were moving toward “some level of cannabis legalization.” Second, the available data indicated that pre-employment marijuana testing disproportionately affected people of color. And third, Amazon was “always looking to hire new employees” and eliminating pre-employment testing for cannabis, and in the process, allowing the company to expand the applicant pool.
“Today’s status quo is unfair and untenable,” Galetti said, noting the difficulty for companies in creating cannabis regulations given the discrepancy between national law and local statutes. “We look forward to working with Congress and other supporters to secure the needed reform of the nation’s cannabis laws.”
Of the total 50 US states, 19 have legalized the recreational use of marijuana so far. Connecticut was last state to do so In June this year. That same month, Amazon announced that it would drop testing applicants for certain job profiles for medicine. Only those candidates who were decided to be screened were applying for the posts regulated by the Department of Transport, such as Truck Driver and Heavy Equipment Operator. It then began actively supporting the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Removal Act (MORE ACT) of 2021.
Aiming to “become Earth’s best employer”, Galetti wrote that “we know that we need to get better every day in order for our local communities and future generations to achieve that feat”.
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