A top Wells Fargo analyst says that there’s one main reason for rising costs and worker shortages in the transportation sector: federal marijuana criminalization and resulting drug testing mandates that persist even as more states enact legalization. Chris Harvey, who serves as head of the equity strategy at Wells Fargo Securities, addressed the issue during a conference call on Wednesday. He proactively brought up the challenges associated with cannabis testing in the trucking industry. “If you’ve listened to one conference call or a thousand conference calls, what have you heard? Logistics, transportation costs, trucker costs all going higher and that’s going to continue to occur,” he said. “And the reason being is very simple. And some of you know this and some, this may be new,” Harvey continued on the call, which was first noted by CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla. “It’s really about drug testing. We’ve legalized marijuana in some states but, obviously, not all but some. And what you have as a trucker is you have a federal mandate for drug testing.” Federal transportation law stipulates that safety-sensitive jobs like trucking require drug testing policies. But while advocates and opponents of legalization agree that nobody should be operating a 16-wheeler while intoxicated, the problem is that THC metabolites can be detectable in a person’s system for weeks after they’ve consumed.
Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 02/18/2022 12:36:00