FMCSA Committees OK Recommendations to Monitor Drivers' Legal Drug Use

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s advisory committee and medical review board on Oct. 27 approved a slate of recommendations designed to help medical examiners better evaluate the effect of truck drivers’ legal use of stimulants, depressants and opioids.

The two groups jointly approved a recommendation that primary physicians who prescribe Schedule II drugs to truck drivers fill out a one-page standardized questionnaire verifying to medical examiners that the driver they’re treating has shown no evidence of medication side effects “that would adversely affect the driver’s ability to operate a commercial motor vehicle.”

Other recommendations approved by the two committees included providing greater education on potentially dangerous narcotic drugs and certain over-the-counter drugs that cause drowsiness; issue guidance for driver use of narcotics and convene a panel to further study Schedule II drugs.

Gina Pervall, chairman of the medical review board, said that after reviewing research on Schedule II drugs the board came to a consensus that drivers who are prescribed the drugs should be banned from operating commercial vehicles.

However, Pervall said the group could not recommend such an outright ban on driver use of the drugs because current FMCSA regulations allow their use if they do not impair driving ability.