The Anchorage Assembly has loosened the city’s drug testing policies regarding marijuana use. Now, most city workers will no longer be fired if they use marijuana off the clock.
The changes take effect in 30 days, and come close to nine years after Alaska voters legalized recreational marijuana.
East Anchorage Assembly member George Martinez was one of the sponsors of the policy changes, which will have the city regulate marijuana use similarly to how it regulates alcohol use.
“I think this is just moving us to the direction where we respect people’s privacies, and we live up to the way we voted on this, the people voted on this, a decade ago almost,” Martinez said.
Marijuana use is still prohibited for certain city workers who have to adhere to federal or state standards, like people with commercial drivers licenses and police officers.
All other city employees cannot work within eight hours of using marijuana. Any drug tests performed by the city would be saliva tests, and a positive test would contain 25 nanograms per milliliter of THC.
The new policy also makes changes to what sorts of drug tests are considered positive tests. In the past, if a person provided two negative dilute urine tests, the city would count them as a positive test. A negative dilute test occurs when there’s too much water in the urine to get an accurate reading.
Last year, a man who’d applied to the Anchorage Fire Department was rejected when he provided two negative dilute tests, which he reported to the city ombudsman. In a report last month, the ombudsman ruled that the man’s complaint was valid, and two negative dilute tests should not constitute a positive test. Under the new drug test policy approved by the Assembly, negative dilute tests “shall not be construed as a positive test or test refusal.”
The new rules also allow for a supportive approach if there is a positive drug test, said Assembly Chair Chris Constant. Under the old policy, employees would automatically be fired if they tested positive for marijuana. Constant said the newer policy allows supervisors to give more “compassionate and healthcare-centered” disciplining, such as verbal warnings and referring people to substance misuse treatment.
“We already don’t fire people if they come to work drunk. We just do it if they come to work high,” Constant said. “But what we do for our covered employees, is we tell you, ‘We value you enough that we’re going to give you a path back to employment. If you make a mistake, that your mistake isn’t terminal to your employment at this municipality.’”
The Assembly approved the policy changes in a 9 to 3 vote with Randy Sulte, Scott Myers and Karen Bronga opposed.
Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
