More employers are dropping marijuana from drug tests. Here's why the trend in Iowa is a slow burn.

Danny Lawhon | The Des Moines Register

Show Caption Hide Caption Iowa's first medical marijuana production facility comes to Des Moines Take a look inside the warehouse south of Downtown Des Moines being converted into Iowa's first legal medical marijuana production facility.

Job providers are going to greater lengths than they have in 20 years to find their best fits.

They're more proactive in recruiting. They're trying to hire people faster. They're even dropping certain drugs from employment screening in non-government, non-transportation occupations.

Many more businesses have shifted away from mandatory marijuana testing in the past six months, said James Reidy, a management-side labor and employment lawyer from New Hampshire who has focused on the subject. "But I think they aren't necessarily advertising it," he said.

It's the first major workplace drug policy shift since widespread screening began about 30 years ago, but is it catching on here in Iowa?

The Des Moines Register surveyed multiple central Iowa job placement firms and found that while the move away from marijuana tests is happening in the state, it is far from a sea change.

Kim Kramer, the Iowa manager for QPS Employment Group, which works with about 100 clients in Des Moines and has 1,800 clients across five Midwestern states, said she could count on one hand the number of companies that have eliminated marijuana screening from the hiring process.

Kevin Erickson, a regional vice president for Robert Half, a firm that focuses on placing workers in administrative, marketing, accounting and finance and other positions, said that issue hasn't come up among any of the company's hundreds of clients.

A spokeswoman for the Iowa Business Council, composed of executives from 22 of the state's largest employers, said that group has not discussed relaxed marijuana testing, either.

"What we are seeing in greater numbers, however, are companies who are adjusting their (job) requirements in other manners, like years of experience, or increasing their pay rates to attract passive job seekers who may already be employed but are looking for a higher wage," Kramer said.

Iowa boasts one of the hottest job markets in the county, with the third-lowest unemployment rate (2.7 percent in May).

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Still, Kramer said some Iowa companies are relaxing their drug testing policies, even if the employers themselves aren't shouting it from the rooftops.

"They're quietly removing these items and restrictions from their policies and pre-employment tests," Reidy said. "That comes in part because they are still wondering what to do (about marijuana use) during employment."

Employers' policy shifts come as attitudes toward marijuana use evolve.

Almost two-thirds of Americans support legalizing pot, according to a Gallup poll from last October. The 64 percent result was the highest in the company's nearly 50 years of measurements on the subject.

The most recent Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll on the issue, conducted in January, found 58 percent of Iowans are against legalizing recreational marijuana — down from 69 percent in 2014. Thirty-nine percent favored recreational pot — up from 28 percent.

Iowa's laws on marijuana use are among the more restrictive in the nation. Access to the product for medicinal purposes is given to patients who have been diagnosed by an Iowa-licensed physician with one of the following conditions: epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, cancer, multiple sclerosis, seizures, AIDS or HIV, Crohn's disease or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. The drug also is available to terminal ill patients who have a life expectancy of less than one year and untreatable pain.

Expansion of the medical marijuana program fizzled in the 2018 legislative session.

Recreational use is illegal in the state.

Nationally, nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana usage. Thirty states have expansive medical marijuana programs, including the conservative hotbed of Oklahoma, whose voters in June approved a program.

The positive test rate for all drugs in the combined U.S. workforce in 2017 was steady at 4.2 percent, according to Quest Diagnostics, the industry leader in testing services. The rate has jumped sharply in the past five years, however, up from 3.5 percent.

Instances of positive marijuana tests rose sharply in states with recreational use laws on the books.

The reality of shifting laws even had U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta suggesting at a congressional hearing this spring that employers should take a step back on drug testing.

"The train has left the station," Reidy said. The next leap will be blanket federal approval for recreational use, although that step is "a few years away."

"And then the next development will be employers and law enforcement finding a reliable test that can determine impairment," he said.

In Iowa, employers need to focus on factors that are limiting their success in filling open positions, Erickson said.

"No. 1, I think sometimes businesses are looking for candidates that don't exist," he said. "Their job requirements don't match what the labor market can produce, and that's with the educational talent being phenomenal. The demand, too, is so great, and sometimes they may need to reset what their expectations are."

Erickson said companies aren't efficient enough in hiring quickly when they find candidates they like and are losing them to more aggressive competition. He said employers are often misinformed on the proper wage ranges of qualified employees and need to consider increased benefits and perks.

Kramer added that transportation options and referral programs are among the most discussed perks for manufacturing and factory jobs.

"The days of reactive recruitment are over, given where the labor market is," Erickson said. "You need a proactive recruitment strategy, where people are aware of your brand and what you're looking for before the hiring process."

Reidy expects marijuana to be part of that strategy if Iowa laws loosen.

Not only is a more libertarian approach favored in millennial-friendly workplaces, other drugs such as opioids are a larger concern for many employers. Indeed, the Quest Diagnostics study noticed surges in positive tests for cocaine and amphetamines, for example. Reidy says a cultural wave — away from marijuana concern and toward prevention of more dangerous drugs — is coming ashore.

"It's like in the movie 'Jaws.' If you yell out, 'Barracuda!' nobody pays attention," he said. "But if you scream out, 'Shark!' the attention is there right away. People are becoming numb to marijuana."