---
type: "Bill"
title: "State employment; drug testing; allow testing for all forms of opioids"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 45-20-110, relating to definitions for drug testing for state employment, so as to allow for testing for all forms of opioids; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2017_18"
identifier: "HB 701"
citation: "Georgia HB 701 (2017_18)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Alan Powell", "Bill Hitchens", "Kevin Tanner", "Mark Newton", "Sharon Cooper"]
version_count: 0
action_count: 15
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2018-01-18"
last_action: "2018-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/4ae8f451-fa71-488f-b71b-e6d0cf472494"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "87b89f874b1873b603c378f0867780ed1d0f659445df08ed3a4897882ca716ec"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia HB 701 (2017_18) — State employment; drug testing; allow testing for all forms of opioids

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 45-20-110, relating to definitions for drug testing for state employment, so as to allow for testing for all forms of opioids; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.


## Votes

- PASSAGE — **159–1** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Alan Powell — primary (person)
- Bill Hitchens — primary (person)
- Kevin Tanner — primary (person)
- Mark Newton — primary (person)
- Sharon Cooper — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-01-18** House Hopper
- **2018-01-19** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2018-01-22** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2018-01-30** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-02-05** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2018-02-05** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2018-02-06** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2018-03-14** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-03-15** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2018-03-21** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2018-03-21** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2018-04-02** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2018-05-03** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2018-05-03** Act 329 `executive-signature`
- **2018-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/4ae8f451-fa71-488f-b71b-e6d0cf472494`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).