Order a Drug Test in Minnesota

Pre-Employment Drug Testing in Minnesota

Minnesota permits pre-employment drug and alcohol testing only after the employer has made a job offer, and the same test must be required of every applicant conditionally offered that position. Cannabis is treated separately: an employer generally may not require a pre-employment cannabis test or refuse to hire solely because cannabis is detected unless a listed state or federal exception applies.

• Make a conditional job offer before drug and alcohol testing.
• Require the same test of all applicants conditionally offered the same position.
• Use a no-THC panel unless cannabis testing is authorized for the position.
• Provide the required policy notice and acknowledgment before testing.
• Use compliant collection, laboratory confirmation, notice, and retest procedures.
• Keep test information confidential.

Employer Testing Programs

A Minnesota policy must identify the employees and applicants subject to testing, the circumstances permitting a test, the right to refuse and consequences of refusal, actions that may follow a confirmed positive, the right to explain a result or request a confirmatory retest, and available appeal procedures. The employer must also provide and post the notices required by Minnesota law.

Select the panel and enter the donor information first. After the case is created, checkout searches available collection sites using the Minnesota city, ZIP code, or area entered for the donor.

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Written Policy and Notice Are Required

An employer may not require drug or alcohol testing unless it is authorized by section 181.951 and conducted under a written policy containing the minimum information in section 181.952. Testing may not be arbitrary or capricious.

The policy must identify who may be tested, when testing may occur, refusal rights and consequences, possible actions after a confirmed positive, the right to explain or request a retest, and available appeals. Affected employees and applicants must receive the required notice, and notice of the policy must be conspicuously posted.

Official sources: Minnesota Statutes § 181.951 and § 181.952

Applicant Testing Follows a Conditional Offer

An employer may request a job applicant’s drug and alcohol test only after making a job offer, and it must require the same test of every applicant conditionally offered that position. If a confirmed result causes withdrawal of the offer, the employer must tell the applicant why.

Pre-employment cannabis testing is generally prohibited unless state or federal law requires it or the position falls within Minnesota’s cannabis-testing exceptions. Those exceptions include safety-sensitive work, peace officers, firefighters, specified direct-care roles, certain commercial-driving positions, federally funded positions, and other positions for which state or federal law requires cannabis testing.

Official source: Minnesota Statutes § 181.951, subds. 2, 8 and 9

Random Testing Is Narrowly Limited

Minnesota allows random cannabis, drug, and alcohol testing only for employees in safety-sensitive positions or professional athletes covered by a collective-bargaining agreement that permits it. A random program should use an impartial selection method and include only legally eligible employees.

Official source: Minnesota Statutes § 181.951, subd. 4

Reasonable Suspicion, Injury and Accident Testing

An employer may test when it reasonably suspects impairment or a violation of written work rules covering workplace use, possession, impairment, sale, or transfer. Testing may also be authorized after qualifying personal injury or when an employee caused, operated, or helped operate machinery, equipment, or a vehicle involved in a work-related accident.

Document the facts supporting the request and connect the test to the written policy. Minnesota also permits testing during employer-referred evaluation or treatment and for up to two years after completion of a prescribed treatment program.

Official source: Minnesota Statutes § 181.951, subds. 5 and 6

Confirmation, Explanation and Retest Rights

A positive initial laboratory screen must be verified by a confirmatory test before adverse personnel action. The tested person must receive written results and information about the right to explain a confirmed positive and request a confirmatory retest of the original sample within the statutory deadlines.

Minnesota generally bars discharge after an employee’s first employer-requested confirmed positive unless the employer first offers an appropriate counseling or rehabilitation opportunity and the employee refuses or fails to complete it. Employers should evaluate the statute’s full conditions before acting.

Official source: Minnesota Statutes § 181.953

Qualified Testing, Employer-Paid Cost and Privacy

Except for the statutory oral-fluid alternative, an employer must use a laboratory meeting section 181.953’s criteria. The employer generally may not make the applicant or employee pay for testing, and it must maintain reliable chain-of-custody procedures.

Test reports and other testing-process information are private and confidential, subject to limited statutory exceptions. Laboratory disclosure to the employer is limited to information concerning the presence or absence of drugs, cannabis, alcohol, or their metabolites.

Official sources: Minnesota Statutes § 181.953 and § 181.954

Off-Duty Cannabis Is a Lawful Consumable Product

Minnesota generally prohibits refusing to hire, disciplining, or discharging a person because of lawful consumable-product use away from the employer’s premises during nonworking hours. The statute expressly includes cannabis flower, cannabis products, lower-potency hemp edibles, and hemp-derived consumer products.

Exceptions allow restrictions tied to a bona fide occupational requirement, conflicts of interest, treatment-program conditions, job performance, and specified federal or state requirements.

Official source: Minnesota Statutes § 181.938

Pre-Employment Cannabis Testing Is Usually Barred

An employer generally may not make cannabis testing a condition of employment or refuse to hire solely because an authorized test detects cannabis. Minnesota treats cannabis as a drug for listed exceptions, including safety-sensitive positions, peace officers, firefighters, specified face-to-face care roles, certain commercial-driving work, federally funded positions, and other roles for which state or federal law requires cannabis testing.

Official source: Minnesota Statutes § 181.951, subds. 8 and 9

Written Workplace Cannabis Rules Remain Permitted

An employer is not required to permit or accommodate cannabis use, possession, impairment, sale, or transfer while a person is working, on employer premises, or operating the employer’s vehicle, machinery, or equipment. Those prohibitions must be placed in a written policy meeting Minnesota’s minimum requirements.

Adverse action may be available for workplace conduct or impairment, a confirmed cannabis result when testing is authorized, violation of compliant written work rules, or action authorized or required by state or federal law.

Official sources: Minnesota Statutes § 181.952, subd. 3 and § 181.953, subd. 10a

Medical-Cannabis Patients Have Added Protection

Subject to federal and state-law exceptions, an employer generally may not discriminate based on registry or Tribal medical-cannabis patient status or a patient’s positive cannabis test unless the patient used, possessed, sold, transported, or was impaired by medical cannabis on work premises, during working hours, or while operating employer equipment.

A patient may present registry verification as part of the statutory explanation process. When relying on a federal-law or federal-benefit exception, section 342.57 requires specific written notice at least 14 days before otherwise prohibited action.

Official source: Minnesota Statutes § 342.57

DOT Rules Are Separate from Non-DOT Testing

A personal or employer non-DOT drug test should not be substituted for a test that is required under DOT regulations. DOT programs have specific requirements for test reasons, forms, collection procedures, laboratories, Medical Review Officers, refusals, records, and return-to-duty processes.

Federal source: U.S. Department of Transportation — 49 CFR Part 40

Examples of DOT-Regulated Industries

• Commercial motor carriers regulated by FMCSA.
• Aviation employers regulated by FAA.
• Railroad employers regulated by FRA.
• Public transit employers regulated by FTA.
• Pipeline operators regulated by PHMSA.
• Other covered transportation operations under federal rules.