[co-author: Leah Shepherd]

On April 13, 2026, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed a law that updates the state’s substance use testing rules and further limits employers’ entitlement to conduct testing on employees and job applicants.

Quick Hits

• Maine Governor Janet Mills recently signed a bill that updates the state’s existing substance use testing law to prohibit arbitrary drug testing in the workplace.
• The new provisions permit drug testing based on reasonable suspicion of impairment, criteria-based testing, and random testing based on neutral selection methods.
• The law will take effect on July 29, 2026.

The legislation updates Maine’s existing substance use testing law as follows:

• Employers are permitted to perform “criteria-based” testing.
• “Observable behavior” and “random testing” are defined.
• Employers are required to give employees and job applicants an opportunity to contest a “non-negative test result,” meaning “a test result that indicates the presence of a substance … above the cutoff level[,] but that has not been confirmed by a confirmation test.”
• Employers are required to ensure the testing facility and confirmation testing laboratory has the ability to test blood samples.
• Medical review officers are required to report test results to employers.
• Employers may comply with the requirements governing drug testing facilities to be considered a qualified testing laboratory to collect samples from employees.

In a departure from the earlier drug testing law, the...

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