Arkansas Drug Testing Laws for Employers

In or Out

Arkansas has no statute regulating private-employer testing generally. Rule 36 applies to employers subject to the workers' compensation laws who qualify for the drug-free workplace program, and states expressly that it has no effect on employers outside that definition. Nothing requires an employer to test, and no cause of action arises from failing to establish a program.

So an Arkansas employer that does not enrol is bound by none of the procedural detail below — and gets none of the protections or the credit.

The Two Clocks Most National Programs Miss

These are the Arkansas-specific items worth checking before anything else, because both cut against how multi-state programs are normally built.

Alcohol testing is restricted by role. An employee not in a safety-sensitive position may be alcohol tested only on reasonable suspicion. Safety-sensitive employees may be alcohol tested on any occasion the section describes. If your national policy runs alcohol alongside drugs on every random draw, that program is not compliant in Arkansas for anyone outside a safety-sensitive designation.

Post-accident collection deadlines are short. Arkansas sets an eight-hour deadline for alcohol collection and thirty-two hours for drugs after an accident or incident. Most national post-accident policies assume a longer window, and eight hours in particular means the process has to function outside office hours.

What Enrolment Actually Requires

Rule 36 is a testing schedule, not just a policy document. A Rule 36 employer must conduct:

• Job applicant testing after a conditional offer.
• Reasonable suspicion testing.
• Routine fitness-for-duty testing where the written policy provides for it.
• Follow-up testing — two years of it after rehabilitation.
• Post-accident testing on every injury requiring more than first aid.

Collection and cutoffs follow 49 C.F.R. Part 40 standards with medical review officer verification. Random testing is expressly permitted as additional testing but is not one of the required categories — the same inversion Tennessee has, and the same surprise for employers who assume random is the centerpiece.

The Written Policy, and the Notice Package

Before testing, the employer gives a one-time written policy statement to all employees and applicants. A model notice is available from the Workers' Health and Safety Division and may be modified, but it must contain: a general policy statement identifying that refraining from working with drugs or alcohol in the body is a condition of employment, the types of testing, and the actions the employer may take on a positive confirmed verified result; a statement advising of the rule's existence; a statement explaining the employee protections in subsection (i); a confidentiality statement; the consequences of refusing a test; a representative sampling of employee assistance or local rehabilitation programs with names, addresses and telephone numbers; a statement of the employee's responsibility to notify the laboratory of any administrative or civil action; a list of all classes of drugs tested for; and a statement on any applicable collective bargaining agreement and the right to appeal.

Plus three publication duties: notice of testing on vacancy announcements for covered positions, the policy posted conspicuously on the premises, and copies available for inspection during business hours.

Sixty Days In, Sixty Days Out

Entering the program requires at least sixty days between the general one-time notice to all employees and the effective date. Leaving it has its own procedure: post a written and dated notice conspicuously on the premises, give sixty days' written notice of the rescission to both your workers' compensation insurer and the Division by certified mail, with the rescission effective no earlier than sixty days after the posted notice.

Keeping the credit is an annual administrative task. The employer completes and submits an application on a Division-approved form each year, the Division notifies acceptance or deficiencies, and the employer must hand the Commission acceptance form to its insurer before receiving any credit. Substantial compliance in completing and filing creates a rebuttable presumption that the employer has established a program and is entitled to the statutory protections. An employer that fails to maintain the program is not eligible, and the credit is unavailable for any policy period not maintained in full.

Cannabis: A Precise Distinction

Arkansas has medical marijuana and not recreational. Amendment 98, substantially rewritten by Act 593 of 2017, bars discrimination based on past or present status as a qualifying patient or designated caregiver — but only at employers with nine or more employees in Arkansas for twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, and the definition of employee excludes independent contractors and people employed outside Arkansas.

The interesting part is how a positive test is treated, because Amendment 98 pulls in two directions at once:

• Current use is presumed from a positive. Section 2(20) defines current use of marijuana as use justifying a good faith belief of use, and states that current use is presumed when a positive test result occurs. That supports excluding a qualifying patient from a safety-sensitive position.
• But a positive alone cannot establish influence. Section 3(f)(3)(B) protects action on a good faith belief that a patient used on the premises or during hours of employment, or was under the influence there, provided that a positive test result for marijuana cannot provide the sole basis for the employer's good faith belief.

So the same result does different work depending on the role. Outside a safety-sensitive designation, you need something beyond the test. Inside one, the presumption carries it. Which makes the written safety-sensitive designations the load-bearing element — and they must be designations the employer has made in writing, covering positions where performing under the influence may threaten health or safety, with examples including carrying a firearm, life-threatening procedures, hazardous or flammable materials, controlled substances, food or medicine, and roles where a lapse of attention could cause injury or death such as operating or maintaining heavy equipment, machinery, aircraft, watercraft or motor vehicles.

Where a claim does arise, remedies are capped: damages are limited to those available under the Arkansas Civil Rights Act, back pay does not accrue more than two years before filing, and a one-year limitations period applies. Note also that where the good faith belief standard meets the current use presumption is a line courts will draw rather than one the text settles, so treat the two provisions as a reason for documented, role-specific decisions rather than a formula.

One Sourcing Note

The Code of Arkansas Rules became the official version of Arkansas agency rules effective January 1, 2025. Rule 36 also carries a codification note that a cross-reference in subsection (g)(8)(B) was changed in 2026 pursuant to Acts 2025, No. 419. That is renumbering rather than substance, but it does mean an older printed copy of Rule 36 carries a stale citation.

Where This Lands

Arkansas employment concentrates in trucking and logistics, retail distribution and supply chain, poultry and food processing, aerospace and defense manufacturing, steel and metal manufacturing, row-crop agriculture, and healthcare. Trucking and distribution employers will already run federally regulated testing for part of the workforce; the Rule 36 decision is about everyone else, and the benefit-preclusion provision is usually what makes the arithmetic work.