What Drugs Do DOT Tests Look For?

Navigating the World of Mandatory Department of Transportation Testing

Ensuring Safety on the Road: The Role of DOT Drug Testing

Commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders, are entrusted with operating trucks, buses, or other large vehicles. All CDL holders are required to adhere to Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations, including mandatory drug testing. These rules are in place to ensure the safety of everyone on the road, but they’re extremely limited - in fact they only look for 5 drugs.

Understanding the scope of DOT drug testing is essential for any business that operates in a Department of Transportation covered industry, or any driver who wants to stay compliant and avoid potential consequences. In this blog post, we'll delve into the specific drugs tested under DOT regulations, explore the rationale behind the testing, and offer some guidance for navigating the testing process smoothly.

The Five Panel Drug Test: What's Under the Microscope?

DOT drug tests are primarily five-panel urine tests, meaning they screen for the presence of five major drug types. These tests have been unchanged for many years, but this is finally changing. The DOT is in the process of enabling oral fluid / saliva tests too, but as of early 2024, that’s not in place quite yet. Still, many in the industry believe that most DOT drug testing will transition to these less invasive tests in the near future.

Here are the 5 drugs that the DOT test looks for:

• Marijuana (Delta-9 THC): This psychoactive component of cannabis can impair driving performance, reaction time, and judgment.

• Cocaine: An addictive stimulant, cocaine is a powerful drug can lead to erratic behavior, increased aggression, and very jerky movements, making it incompatible with safe driving.

• Amphetamines (including Methamphetamine and MDMA): These powerful stimulants elevate alertness and energy levels but can also cause impaired judgment, anxiety, and paranoia, compromising driving ability.

• Opioids (including Morphine, Codeine, and Heroin): These pain relievers can cause drowsiness, dizziness, loss of focus, and impaired coordination, significantly affecting driving skills.

• Phencyclidine (PCP): This dissociative anasthetic drug can cause distortions in perception, unpredictable behavior, and even violent outbursts, posing a grave danger on the road.

It's important to remember that DOT urinalysis tests typically screen for the metabolites of these drugs, meaning they can detect past usage within a significant timeframe - usually several weeks. The forthcoming oral fluid tests will screen for primarily active drug molecules, meaning that they will be less sensitive to past use. Detection times will depend on the drug, but generally speaking, oral fluid tests will only pick up on drug use that’s happened in the preceding few days.

Common Drugs of Abuse Not Included in DOT Tests

As is obvious to anyone who tracks drug use trends, the Department of Transportation mandated drug tests do not look for several common drugs of abuse. Although many consider the methodology of the DOT tests to be the gold-standard, this is far from the truth. In fact, it can lure companies into a false sense of security by allowing them to believe that they are testing for drugs their employees are likely to abuse, while leaving many common drugs unchecked.

The drugs that the DOT test looks for are well known, so if an employee has a substance abuse problem, or just wants to be high at work, it’s trivially easy to do so. All the employee has to do is avoid using the 5 drugs tested for by the DOT, and they’ll never be caught unless an observant manager can establish reasonable suspicion.

Here are just a few common drugs of abuse that are not screened for by the DOT:

• Fentanyl (and other synthetic opioids)

• Cathinones

• Synthetic Cannabinoids (like Spice, K2, and Delta-8 THC)

• Kratom

• PCP Analogues

• Psilocybin, LSD and other common psychedelics

• Nitazines

Most of the drugs noted above are more common than some of the drugs that are included in the DOT testing battery. As an example, PCP hasn’t been present in the US’s drug supply for many years. PCP analogues however are used and are not tested for. In another example, it’s no accident that Kratom and Synthetic Cannabinoids are sold legally and over the counter in many truck stops. These are drugs that are not detected by the DOT tests, and so they’re popular choices for DOT covered drivers.

Beyond the DOT Five: Keeping your workplace safe in a dynamic drug climate.

At this point, you may be wondering how you can keep your workplace safe if the Department of Transportation only tests for a few substances, and more surprisingly doesn’t test for some of the most common drugs of abuse. The answer is multi-fold, and the following steps will be very helpful, if adopted:

1. Ensure that managers and supervisors are trained on reasonable suspicion.
   This is the single easiest step that can be taken to keep a workplace safe. By keeping supervisory staff current on what to look for in reasonable suspicion cases, and having a clear process for them to follow in reasonable suspicion cases, you can have a much higher probability of catching workplace impairment before it causes an accident. This training should be repeated annually as new drug threats are always popping up.

2. Clearly communicate expectations of sobriety with employees.
   While it may seem obvious to most of us, employees are often not aware that they cannot use legal substances that are impairing while at work. It’s unbelievable how often we talk with employers who’ve dismissed employees for using marijuana at work because “it’s legal now” and the employee didn’t understand the policy. Simple communication with employees and ensuring that they have read and understand your workplace impairment policy is massively helpful in setting expectations.

3. Adopt Impairment Detection Technology.
   Even the most adept supervisors can miss impairment in their workers. This is not only a huge safety risk, but it negatively impacts the work environment and productivity. Further, supervisors may be reluctant to pursue reasonable suspicion because of the likelihood of being wrong. Impairment detection technology, like Gaize, can screen for impairment as it’s happening. This allows businesses to be proactive rather than reactive in dealing with impaired employees. It also gives supervisors cover because they can blame the technology, rather than their own beliefs in taking action against a suspected impaired employee. Since Impairment Detection Technology is typically sensitive to impairment from many substances, businesses can use it to keep their workplace safe between DOT mandated tests. While Impairment Detection Technology is not a replacement for DOT mandated chemical tests, it can be used in addition to those tests to provide a much higher standard of safety.

Conclusion

The Department of Transportation mandated chemical tests look for 5 drugs in the body: Delta-9 THC (from Marijuana), Cocaine, Opiates like Heroin and Morphine, PCP, and Amphetamines like MDMA, Speed, and Meth. This means that employees that use common drugs like Delta-8 THC or Fentanyl will not be caught by DOT tests.

Impairment Detection Technology can provide a significant improvement on safety for a DOT regulated business, but these tests are to be used in addition to, not instead of, the DOT mandated tests. Leading businesses are deploying Impairment Detection Technology and have seen significant improvement in safety as a result. Gaize is one provider of this technology, and we would be happy to discuss how it can improve your safety program.