Workers at Wyatt Bassett’s furniture factory in Virginia use powerful tools to churn out the company’s trademark dressers and headboards, so screening new hires for drugs is a no-brainer.
Or it used to be.
Virginia last year fully legalized marijuana — the first state in the South to do so. The upshot is that “being positive for cannabis does not necessarily disqualify you for employment,” said Mr. Bassett, CEO of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co., which has 575 employees.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden issued an executive order aimed at reshaping how the federal government treats cannabis.
The shift in policy should aid many companies. Faced with a shortfall in applicants, employers across the U.S. are balancing pressure to ease up on testing for a legal drug with concerns that this could impact safety and raise issues of