Amazon said Tuesday that it will stop testing jobseekers for marijuana.
The company, the second-largest private employer in the U.S. behind Walmart, is making the change as states legalize cannabis or introduce laws banning employers from testing for it.
In March, a New York man sued Amazon, saying the company rescinded his job offer at an Amazon warehouse because he tested positive for marijuana, even though the city banned employers from testing job applicants for cannabis in 2020.
Amazon said in a blog post that it will still test workers for other drugs and conduct “impairment checks” on the job. And the company said some roles may still require a cannabis test in line with Department of Transportation regulations.
Seattle-based Amazon also said Tuesday that it will support the federal legalization of marijuana by pushing lawmakers to pass the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2021.
Threatened by possible shortages of lithium for electric car batteries, automakers are racing to lock in supplies of the once-obscure “white gold” in a politically and environmentally fraught competition from China to Nevada to Chile.
The number of different electronic cigarette devices sold in the U.S. has nearly tripled to over 9,000 since 2020, driven almost entirely by a wave of unauthorized disposable vapes from China, according to tightly controlled sales data obtained by The Associated Press.
In Wednesday's business headlines, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is due in court to defend the company's takeover of Activision Blizzard and United Airlines is under fire over its recent cancellations with CEO Scott Kirby blaming the FAA for the disruptions. Meanwhile, a judge approved Overstock's purchase of Bed Bath & Beyond assets.
