Marijuana Moment: Bill To Require Federal Health Officials To Track Testing For Marijuana And Other Drugs In Hospital ERs Advances In Congress

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A congressional committee has advanced legislation that would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to study how prevalent drug testing for marijuana, fentanyl and other drugs is in hospital emergency departments.

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health last month approved the legislation from Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), known as “Tyler’s Law,” after Tyler Shamash, a 19-year-old who died following a fentanyl ingestion in 2018 and was not tested for the drug when brought to the hospital for a suspected overdose.

While the legislation, H.R. 2004, is largely focused on fentanyl, it says that within a year of passage the HHS secretary would need to complete a study to determine “how frequently hospital emergency departments test for fentanyl (in addition to testing for other substances such as amphetamines, phencyclidine, cocaine, opiates, and marijuana) when a patient is experiencing an overdose.”

The study would also need to look at costs associated with fentanyl testing, the potential benefits and risks of such testing and how it may impact patients’ experiences—including with respect to confidentiality and privacy protections and the patient-physician relationship.

The bill, which has 60 House cosponsors, says that within six months of completing the study, HHS would also need to issue guidance covering:

“(1) Whether hospital emergency departments should implement fentanyl testing as a routine procedure for patients experiencing an overdose.

(2) How hospitals can ensure that clinicians in their hospital emergency departments are aware of which substances are being tested for in their routinely-administered drug tests, regardless of whether those tests screen for fentanyl.

(3) How the administration of fentanyl testing in hospital emergency departments may affect the future risk of overdose and general health outcomes.”

The House committee approved the bill without amendment in a voice vote.

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Companion legislation in the Senate from Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) was approved by the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in January—but not before being amended to remove the language that references marijuana and other drugs besides fentanyl.

Unlike the House bill, the HHS secretary would have three years to complete the study on hospital drug testing under the amended Senate proposal.

In April, a pair of Republican senators filed a separate bill that would require the federal government to track the cost of hospitalization due to marijuana use.

The Marijuana Impact on Medicaid Act of 2026 from Sens. Ted Budd (R-NC) and Pete Ricketts (R-NE) would require the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to compile data on “Federal and State expenditures under the Medicaid program…that are attributable to costs incurred for providing medical assistance for inpatient hospital services, outpatient hospital services, and for services received at a hospital emergency room…related to marijuana use.”

The bill’s language is similar to two amendments Budd previously filed on the cannabis and hospitalization issue that didn’t end up being considered on the Senate floor.

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