Wells Fargo Analyst: Trucker Shortage Due to Cannabis Prohibition

The Chief Equity Strategist for Wells Fargo suggested recently that the U.S. supply chain issues and a trucker labor shortage are due to drug testing policies under the ongoing federal prohibition of cannabis.

Full story after the jump.

A top Wells Fargo analyst suggested that federally mandated drug testing for cannabis is contributing to the worker shortage and rising prices in the trucking industry, according to a Marijuana Moment. Wells Fargo’s Chief Equity Strategist Chris Harvey’s comments came during a conference call last week when Harvey described the drug tests as creating “a very tight market even worse” as more states legalize cannabis for adult use and said that the mandates exclude “a significant portion of that trucker industry.”

The comments were first reported by CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla on Twitter.

“If you’ve listened to one conference call or a thousand conference calls, what have you heard? Logistics, transportation costs, trucker costs all going higher and that’s going to continue to occur. And the reason being is very simple. And some of you know this and some, this may be new it’s really about drug testing. We’ve legalized marijuana in some states but, obviously, not all but some. And what you have as a trucker is you have a federal mandate for drug testing.” Harvey via Twitter

A New York Post report from last year found 72,000 truckers were removed from their jobs due to a failed drug test for cannabis. More recently, Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D) said during a House Rules Committee hearing that the labor shortage at the U.S. Postal Service could be due in part to federal cannabis prohibition, Marijuana Moment reported.

Activists and opponents both agree that it is not safe to operate a large truck while intoxicated; however, THC remains detectable on drug tests for as long as 30 days.

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