Home Depot scraps marijuana drug tests for employees: report

By Steve Gelsi

Internal memo on banning cannabis testing gets posted on Reddit

Home Depot Corp. will stop testing many of its roughly 400,000 U.S. employees for marijuana, according to a report this week.

The policy, effective Sept. 1, is an extension of one that exists in nine U.S. states where adult-use cannabis reforms led to a ban on testing for marijuana.

The change was initially reported by Marijuana Moment, which cited an image of the internal memo posted on the social-media site Reddit (RDDT). (See below)

The ban on marijuana screening includes drug tests after accidents and reasonable suspicion.

Cannabis will no longer be included in drug testing of lift and material-equipment handlers after accidents or in cases of reasonable suspicion.

Drug testing will continue, however, for employees that fall under U.S. Department of Transportation requirements in the aviation sector.

Home Depot will suspend testing for people applying for work at the company except for asset protection and corporate-security roles.

Home Depot spokespeople did not respond to emails and voicemails from MarketWatch.

People who posted comments on Reddit were mostly in favor of the move.

"Smoke all you want, but please don't operate machinery if you're in an altered state by it," one poster said.

Another said removing cannabis screenings to get hired in the first place is good.

"What some one does at home on their own time has literally nothing to do to job performance," the person said.

Another posting asked whether people who were fired for marijuana could possibly get their jobs back.

A separate posting said, "Obviously they are having a hard time getting drivers let alone employees."

Another posting said the company had already stopped marijuana testing months ago and was just formalizing the policy.

Home Depot's stock (HD) was down 0.2% on Friday. The stock has fallen 2.4% this week but it's up nearly 6% so far in 2024, while the S&P 500 SPX has risen by about 17.4%.

-Steve Gelsi

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08-30-24 1214ET

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