Kiss goodbye to workplace safety requirements, thanks to leftists addicted to weed. Protections of workers against injury from other workers under the influence of drugs is now verboten by Democrat Nazis.
Employers: Clock is Ticking to Update Marijuana Policies | McGlinchey Stafford PLLC 1-27-23
Employers: Clock is Ticking to Update Marijuana Policies
January 27, 2023
With an increasing number of states passing laws protecting employees who utilize marijuana, employers throughout the country are presently tasked with redesigning their marijuana-related policies and practices to avoid the (significantly increased) risk of suffering discrimination, retaliation, and other costly claims. With many relevant state laws going into effect throughout the next twelve months, the clock is ticking.
For many companies in the United States, this will be their first direct interaction with state-specific marijuana laws. Employers are confused by conflicts among applicable state and federal laws – as well as the patchwork of state-specific laws which govern marijuana-related conduct in states with regulated markets – and are often unsure how to proceed. Indeed, the task of overhauling a company’s marijuana-related policies and practices is no small task. Decades-old wisdom and standard operations regarding adverse actions must be reevaluated in light of these new laws, or employers risk being held liable for discrimination or retaliation, which can result in the award of substantial damages to a victim in the form of future wages, emotional distress, statutory penalties, attorney’s fees, and more. ...
Changing Landscape: Marijuana-Related Employment Laws & Policies ...
for example, Michigan, which has a robust legal recreational marijuana market, still permits employers to refuse to hire employees based on their marijuana-related criminal history (and despite the fact that certain marijuana-related misdemeanors are expungable in Michigan). ...
Changing Landscape: Private Marijuana-Related Employment Practices
The majority of relevant corporate policy reform in this space is driven by compliance with these new state laws. However, some major employers in the U.S. have recently found their previous policies prohibiting previous or off-duty marijuana use inappropriately or disproportionately barred qualified applicants from employment and have reformed their employment practices related to off-duty marijuana use voluntarily and without any arm-twisting resulting from the threat of enforcement action.
Indeed, June 2021 brought a major policy change to Amazon’s hiring and firing policies and practices. The company, which is the second largest employer in the Fortune 500 as of 2022 with more than 1.6 million employees, announced it will exclude marijuana from its pre-employment drug screening program for unregulated positions (that is, positions not regulated by the Department of Transportation.) Amazon also announced it would reinstate employment eligibility for former employees and applicants who were previously terminated or deferred during random or pre-employment marijuana screenings, respectively. However, Amazon was clear that the company’s zero-tolerance policy for impairment while working had not changed, including that the company will continue to test for all drugs and alcohol after any accidents or other incidents. ...
“Pre-employment marijuana testing has disproportionately affected communities of color by stalling job placement and, by extension, economic growth.”
Outside of the private employment context, the Air Force, Air Force Reserve, National Guard, and Space Force followed suit in September 2022, announcing a temporary policy change allowing a second chance to applicants who previously tested positive for (delta-9) THC during their entrance physical and were excluded from enlisting on this basis. Previously, a positive result on the initial test meant a permanent bar from entry. ...
The policy’s about-face marks an attempt to rethink an aspect of the Air Force’s stringent ban on marijuana use as the service struggles to meet its recruiting goals. ...
