The US Coast Guard has announced that marine employers must establish random drug testing programs for covered crewmembers on inspected and uninspected vessels in accordance with 46 CFR 16.230. Every marine employer is required to collect and maintain a record of drug testing program data for each calendar year, and submit this data by 15 March of the following year to the Coast Guard in an annual MIS report.
Each year, the Coast Guard will publish a notice reporting the results of random drug testing for the previous calendar year’s MIS data and the minimum annual percentage rate for random drug testing for the next calendar year. The purpose of setting a minimum random drug testing rate is to assist the Coast Guard in analyzing its current approach for deterring and detecting illegal drug abuse in the maritime industry.
The Coast Guard announces that the minimum random drug testing rate for calendar year 2017 is 25 percent. The Coast Guard may increase this rate if MIS data indicates a qualitative deficiency of reported data or the positive random testing rate is greater than 1.0 percent. MIS data for 2016 indicates that the positive rate is less than one percent.
For 2017, the minimum random drug testing rate will continue at 25 percent of covered employees for the period of January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017.
Source: US Federal Register
