Drug Testing Laws in Alaska

State law (Alaska): Start with the sentence the rest of the article hangs on. AS 23.10.615 reads, in full: compliance with AS 23.10.600 — 23.10.699 by employers is voluntary Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. Nothing here compels an employer to test, and nothing here compels an employer that does test to follow these procedures. What the article offers instead is immunity: an employer that has established a policy and initiated a programme under it cannot be sued for good-faith actions on a positive result, for failing to test, for failing to detect a drug or a medical or psychological condition, or for shutting the programme down Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026.

State law (Alaska): The entry price is a written policy. Testing or retesting may only be carried out after the employer adopts one and informs employees — by giving a copy to each employee subject to testing, or by making it available the same way the employer communicates other personnel practices, such as a handbook, a manual, or a posting in a place accessible to employees Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. The policy must contain at least ten elements: the employer's position on drug and alcohol use; who is subject to testing; the circumstances in which testing may be required; the substances tested for; the testing methods and collection procedures, including the right to a confirmatory test reviewed by a physician; the consequences of refusing; the adverse personnel action that may follow; the two employee rights set out under notice below; and the employer's confidentiality policy Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026.

State law (Alaska): Two provisions about cost and time are worth knowing before anything else, because they are unusual and they are yours. THE EMPLOYER SHALL PAY THE ENTIRE ACTUAL COSTS of drug and alcohol impairment testing required of employees and prospective employees, plus reasonable transportation costs if the test is somewhere other than your normal work site Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. And testing required by an employer IS CONSIDERED WORK TIME for the purposes of compensation and benefits for current employees Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. Tests are also normally to be scheduled during, or immediately before or after, a regular work period Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026.

State law (Alaska): The laboratory rules are specific. Apart from on-site tests, drug testing must be done at a laboratory approved or certified by SAMHSA or the College of American Pathologists, American Association of Clinical Chemists Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. Every positive must be confirmed by a DIFFERENT analytical process, and that confirmation SHALL BE gas chromatography mass spectrometry Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. An employer may not rely on a positive at all unless the confirmatory result has been reviewed by a licensed physician or doctor of osteopathy — who must contact you within 48 hours and offer to discuss it, must interpret the result for legal use, and MUST REPORT A RESULT CAUSED BY PRESCRIPTION MEDICATION AS NEGATIVE Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. Where the federal Department of Health and Human Services has set a cutoff, that cutoff decides what counts as positive; where it has not, the employer must disclose its own cutoff in the written policy Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026.

State law (Alaska): On a positive that violates the policy, or on a refusal to give a sample, the employer may require enrolment in a rehabilitation, treatment or counselling programme, suspend with or without pay for a designated period, terminate, refuse to hire an applicant, or take other adverse employment action Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026.

One definitional point that decides a question other states argue about. Alaska defines DRUGS as a substance considered unlawful under AS 11.71 OR THE METABOLITE OF THE SUBSTANCE Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. The metabolite question — whether finding an inactive breakdown product is finding a drug — is settled in the definitions here rather than fought over in the positive-result rule, which is where Missouri, North Dakota, New Mexico, Delaware, South Dakota, California and Washington each handle it differently.

A second definition worth noticing: SAMPLE means urine, oral fluid or breath Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. Hair is not in that list. An employer testing hair is not testing with a sample as this article defines one, and what that does to the article's protections is a question for a lawyer, not something this page will assert.

State law (Alaska): Applicants and employees are treated differently in one clean way. An employer may test an employee for drugs OR for alcohol impairment; it may test a prospective employee FOR DRUGS ONLY Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. Alcohol impairment testing of applicants is not what the article authorises.

State law (Alaska): The employer must inform prospective employees that they will have to undergo drug testing Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. Refusing to provide a drug testing sample is a ground on which an employer may refuse to hire Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026.

State law (Alaska): And the cost rule reaches applicants explicitly: the employer shall pay the entire actual costs of testing required OF EMPLOYEES AND PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYEES Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. If you are asked to pay for your own pre-employment test in Alaska, that is not what this article says.

Note the limits of that. Both points hold for an employer relying on this voluntary article. The article does not say an employer outside it must pay, and this page does not claim otherwise.

State law (Alaska): Random testing is permitted outright. In addition to the job-related grounds, an employer may require employees or groups of employees to undergo drug testing on a random or chance basis Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. There is no safety-sensitive gate on it, unlike Minnesota, Connecticut or Vermont.

State law (Alaska): But RANDOM is a defined word, and the definition has teeth: a scientifically valid method that ensures that ALL COVERED EMPLOYEES HAVE AN EQUAL CHANCE OF BEING SELECTED Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. A selection that keeps landing on the same person is not random within the meaning of the article, and the article is what the employer's immunity depends on.

State law (Alaska): Scope is constrained too. The policy MUST identify which employees or positions are subject to testing, and the employer must test all or part of the work force BASED ON CONSIDERATION OF SAFETY for employees, customers, clients or the public at large Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. So the pool is not meant to be arbitrary — it is meant to be drawn by reference to safety and written down in advance.

State law (Alaska): The other grounds are broad: investigating possible individual employee impairment; investigating workplace accidents; maintaining safety for employees, customers, clients or the public at large; maintaining productivity, the quality of products or services, or security of property or information; and reasonable suspicion that an employee may be affected by drug or alcohol use in a way that may adversely affect job performance or the work environment Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026.

State law (Alaska): Post-accident testing carries two real limits. The test must be taken AS SOON AS PRACTICABLE after the accident, and it must be administered to employees the employer REASONABLY BELIEVES MAY HAVE CONTRIBUTED to it Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. Testing the whole shift after an incident is not what the section authorises.

And reasonable suspicion is tied to a trained person. Each employer must ensure that at least one designated employee receives at least 60 minutes of training on alcohol misuse and at least 60 further minutes on controlled substances, and that training is what the designee uses to decide whether reasonable suspicion exists Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. Alaska is unusual in putting a specific training minimum behind the suspicion decision.

State law (Alaska): Alaska legalised adult marijuana use by ballot measure, and the same chapter carves employers out of it. Nothing in the chapter is intended to require an employer to permit or accommodate the use, consumption, possession, transfer, display, transportation, sale or growing of marijuana in the workplace, OR TO AFFECT THE ABILITY OF EMPLOYERS TO HAVE POLICIES RESTRICTING THE USE OF MARIJUANA BY EMPLOYEES Source 3State legislatureAS 17.38.220 — marijuana: employers, driving, minors, and control of property — checked 24 Aug 2026.

Read that second clause carefully, because it is the one that matters. It is not limited to the workplace. It preserves employer policies restricting employee marijuana use, full stop. Alaska gives no off-duty use protection, no accommodation duty, and no rule against acting on a positive marijuana test — nothing resembling New Jersey, Nevada, Connecticut or California.

The chapter separately confirms that a person, employer or other entity controlling private property may prohibit or regulate marijuana on that property Source 3State legislatureAS 17.38.220 — marijuana: employers, driving, minors, and control of property — checked 24 Aug 2026.

On our provenance: every other statement on this page was read from the Alaska State Legislature's own statute viewer. This section was not — the official viewer would not render Title 17 for us, so the marijuana provision was read from a commercial reproduction of the statutes. We are recording that rather than hiding it. Verify AS 17.38.220 against the official text before relying on it.

State law (Alaska): Alaska has no safety-sensitive category. The term does not appear in the article's definitions, and no ground for testing is unlocked by an employee holding a safety-sensitive post Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. This is a substantive finding, not a gap in our reading.

Safety does appear — but as a consideration that governs SCOPE rather than a label that grants permission. The policy must identify which employees or positions are covered, and the employer must test all or part of the work force based on consideration of safety for employees, customers, clients or the public at large Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. Safety decides who is in the pool; it does not decide what may be done to them.

That makes Alaska one of six distinct patterns on this hub. Washington ties safety-sensitive to a substantial risk of death. South Dakota extends it to serious property damage. Nevada leaves it to whatever the employer determines. Connecticut has the Labor Commissioner designate the positions by regulation. Montana abandons the phrase and instead defines the covered worker by listing kinds of work — hazardous environments, security posts, public safety or health, jobs requiring driving, and fiduciary roles. Alaska declines to define the category at all, and instead requires the employer to draw its testing pool by reference to safety and write that down before testing starts.

State law (Alaska): Alaska is the state on this hub with actual clocks, and they run in both directions. Start with the one before any testing happens: an employer MAY NOT INITIATE a programme until AT LEAST 30 DAYS after it notifies employees of its intent to implement one and makes written copies of the policy available Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. A programme that appears with a week's warning is not one begun under this article.

State law (Alaska): Your right to the results, with its deadline: on request you may obtain the written test results, and the employer must provide them WITHIN FIVE WORKING DAYS after a WRITTEN request — so long as that written request is made WITHIN SIX MONTHS after the date of the test Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. Both halves matter. Put it in writing, and do not let six months pass.

State law (Alaska): Your right to explain a positive, with its deadline: if you request in writing WITHIN 10 WORKING DAYS after being notified of the result, the employer must give you an opportunity to explain it IN A CONFIDENTIAL SETTING WITHIN 72 HOURS of receiving your written notice, or before taking adverse employment action Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. The 10 working days is the part people lose. Miss it and the confidential-setting right is not triggered.

Practical: there is an earlier moment than either of those, and it is the best one. At collection, the person taking the sample MUST give you an opportunity to provide medical information that may be relevant to the test, including identifying current or recently used prescription and nonprescription drugs Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. Naming a medication there, before a result exists, is what lets the reviewing physician do their job — and that physician must report a result caused by prescription medication as negative Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. The physician must also contact you within 48 hours of reviewing a confirmed positive and offer to discuss it Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026.

State law (Alaska): Results are confidential and privileged. A communication received by the employer through the testing programme may not be disclosed except to you or someone you designate in writing, to individuals the employer designated to receive and evaluate results or hear your explanation, or as ordered by a court or government agency Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. Alaska also narrows defamation suits sharply: an action over testing requires disclosure outside that authorised circle, a FALSE POSITIVE, negligent disclosure of it, and every ordinary element of the tort Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026.

State law (Alaska): Alaska solves the overlap problem explicitly, and generously to employers. An employer obligated by state or federal requirements to have a testing programme RECEIVES THE FULL BENEFITS of this article EVEN IF the required programme is inconsistent with it, so long as the employer complies with the requirements applicable to its operations Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. A DOT-regulated employer in Alaska does not have to choose between the federal rulebook and the state one to keep the state immunity.

Federal (DOT): A DOT test itself still runs entirely on the federal rules — federal panel, federal cutoffs, federal collection procedure, medical review officer and federal consequences. Nothing on this page changes a DOT test.

On instant and on-site tests: Alaska is one of the most detailed states on this hub, and the rules are protective. Only products APPROVED BY THE FDA FOR EMPLOYEE TESTING may be used, and they must be used in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions Source 2State legislatureAS 23.10.645 — on-site drug and alcohol testing — checked 24 Aug 2026. The administrator must be certified in writing by the manufacturer as competent to administer and evaluate the test, trained to recognise adulteration, and bound by a signed confidentiality statement Source 1State legislatureAlaska Statutes, Title 23, Chapter 10, Article 8 — Drug and Alcohol Testing by Employers — checked 24 Aug 2026. Your specimen must be KEPT IN SIGHT, and the test must be conducted so that you can OBSERVE THE PROCEDURE AND THE RESULTS Source 2State legislatureAS 23.10.645 — on-site drug and alcohol testing — checked 24 Aug 2026. Above all: an employer MAY NOT TAKE PERMANENT EMPLOYMENT ACTION on an unconfirmed screen positive, and if it takes temporary action it SHALL RESTORE YOUR WAGES AND BENEFITS if the confirmatory test comes back negative or if you show the positive was caused by a valid prescription or a lawful nonprescription drug Source 2State legislatureAS 23.10.645 — on-site drug and alcohol testing — checked 24 Aug 2026. Compare Hawaii, which puts a four-hour clock on laboratory confirmation, and Oregon, which bars releasing an unconfirmed on-site result for use against employment.

Gaps we are naming: two subsections of the immunity section — dealing with a presumption of validity where the employer followed the article, and with the absence of any claim for failing to have a programme at all — were read only in summary, so this page does not quote them. The provision on this chapter's effect on Alaska's medical marijuana law was not read at all, which is why there is nothing on this page about medical cannabis. And the marijuana provision came from a commercial reproduction rather than the legislature's own viewer, as flagged in that section.