Results from the 2026 Fisher Phillips Flash Survey found that more employers are testing job applicants for cannabis this year than in 2024.
The number of employers who test applicants for cannabis rose to 60% this year, up from 52% in 2024. The survey also found that employers who are screening for cannabis say they are less likely to have difficulty finding qualified candidates this year than in 2024. Additionally, 46% of employers say they test all applicants, while 14% only test applicants for certain jobs, such as safety-sensitive positions.
“I didn’t expect this result, and I suspect most employers won’t either. Cannabis is becoming increasingly more available now as more and more states legalize it in some way, and perhaps employers are seeing the effects of that in ways they weren’t just a few years ago.” — Todd Logsdon, co-chair of FP’s Workplace Safety and Catastrophe Management Practice Group, in a press release
However, while there are more employers testing for cannabis cannabis consumption in 2026, about 24% of them said they are considering loosening their requirements in the near future, while 26% said they are unsure about whether to continue cannabis testing at all.
The survey also found that New England and the Mid-Atlantic were the only two regions where the number of employers who are not testing applicants for cannabis increased — otherwise, even in the West Coast and other regions with adult-use legalization laws, employers were more likely across the board to conduct cannabis testing in 2026 than in 2024.
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