“A whole lot of the firefighters are saying, ‘I’d moderately work with someone who smoked a joint the night time earlier than in order that they might get an excellent night time’s sleep than coming in hung over.’”
By Wesley Muller, Louisiana Illuminator
With medical marijuana now out there to Louisiana’s workforce, staff have raised considerations that they could possibly be fired or face different job-related repercussions for testing optimistic for a authorized drug taken on the recommendation of a doctor. A brand new state panel is looking for options to this potential downside that may shield staff and employers.
Three subcommittees of the Employment and Medical Marijuana Job Pressure met Tuesday to debate completely different facets of the problem and all arrived on the similar query: How strictly can the state regulate the personal sector almost about medical marijuana?
Hashish is now authorized for medicinal use in 37 states and recreationally in 19 states. In 17 states, together with a number of Republican strongholds, both lawmakers or courts have established legal guidelines that shield staff from discrimination or opposed penalties for utilizing medical marijuana, in accordance with the Marijuana Coverage Undertaking.
Louisiana’s job pressure, created by way of a examine decision authored by Rep. Mandie Landry (D), is taking a look at these states’ legal guidelines to draft proposals for the Louisiana Legislature to contemplate.
Job pressure member Troy Prevot, a doctor assistant who conducts employment drug testing within the Baton Rouge space, stated he believes most firms haven’t any social or ethical opposition to medical marijuana and simply don’t wish to be held chargeable for a employee who is likely to be intoxicated or discrimination.
“I believe many employers don’t actually care,” Prevot stated. “They only need to have the ability to shield themselves in sure conditions.”
Some states’ anti-discrimination legal guidelines shield staff from being fired or penalized for utilizing medical marijuana however permit employers to fireside or self-discipline a employee who’s underneath the affect of marijuana whereas at work.
Prevot stated many office insurance policies and authorities rules are outdated and nonetheless primarily based on the mistaken perception {that a} optimistic drug check is an indicator of intoxication. An individual who smoked a joint a month in the past can check optimistic on a hair follicle drug display screen and be deemed intoxicated though they aren’t, he stated.
“What’s ‘underneath the affect’?” Prevot requested. “I get frightened about utilizing that sort of language. It’s unfair.”
Not one of the out there drug screening applied sciences can point out a particular time of when an individual consumed a drug, and the degrees of medicine a laboratory detects can not decide if an individual is impaired as a result of people metabolize medication at completely different charges, he stated.
“There’s nothing that truly, that I’m conscious of, hyperlinks impairment,” Prevot stated. “I’d be very frightened about this job pressure making an attempt to make use of ranges to indicate impairment.”
Along with creating the task force, Landry additionally authored a state legislation that prohibits employment discrimination towards state staff who use medical marijuana. The legislation took impact August 1 however doesn’t apply to the personal sector.
Nonetheless, some personal firms are already forward of lawmakers in eliminating drug testing for hashish.
Enterprise foyer affect
Job pressure member Kevin Caldwell, who represents the Marijuana Coverage Undertaking, identified that staff have job choices now that they haven’t had in a long time. The nationwide labor scarcity has allowed hashish customers to buy round for employers that may accommodate their medical wants.
In 2021, on-line retailer Amazon—the nation’s second largest employer behind Walmart—stated optimistic checks for marijuana use would not disqualify folks from jobs that the U.S. Division of Transportation regulates, equivalent to truck drivers. Different firms with comparable insurance policies embody Goal, Kroger, Marriott, Goodwill Industries, Main League Baseball and the Nationwide Hockey League, Caldwell stated.
The labor scarcity has been significantly distinguished in Louisiana the place, in accordance with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a file 300,000 folks left the workforce this yr. Louisiana has roughly 65,000 medical marijuana sufferers, and that quantity has been growing yearly, Caldwell stated.
Whatever the labor scarcity, job pressure members agreed that any suggestions they make will want the assist of the Louisiana Affiliation of Enterprise and Business (LABI), one of the vital influential foyer teams within the Capitol.
“I believe will probably be exhausting to undertake if you happen to regulate personal enterprise an excessive amount of,” Prevot stated.
Job pressure member Peter Robins-Brown, who leads the advocacy group Louisiana Progress, stated he has by no means seen any laws cross the Home Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations with out LABI’s blessing.
“I’m not going to go to Home Labor on a invoice the place I do know that [LABI lobbyist] Jim Patterson’s going to take a seat on the desk and say, ‘We don’t need this,’” Robins-Brown stated. “It doesn’t matter what I say. It doesn’t matter if I introduced stacks of proof and 100 folks to testify. If he sits down and says, ‘We don’t need this,’ we’re not getting out of that committee.”
Patterson didn’t reply to a request for remark Tuesday.
Prevot and Caldwell stated they really feel assured they’ll meet with Patterson and work out a compromise LABI would assist.
Schedule I standing
Caldwell stated he expects federal authorities inside the subsequent few years will change the designation of marijuana as a Schedule I drug, a classification it shares with heroin, LSD and different substances with no accepted medical makes use of. Medical hashish sufferers would then have the protections of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (ADA). Till then, he stated, medical marijuana sufferers will look to state governments.
The ADA protects staff from being fired or penalized on the premise of drug habit or alcoholism, however it doesn’t apply to medical marijuana due to its Schedule I standing.
Presently, a employee who takes methadone, a strong opioid, to deal with a heroin habit is roofed underneath the ADA, however a employee who makes use of medical marijuana to deal with a heroin habit will not be protected.
Suggestions for firefighters, veterans
The duty pressure can even take into account particular employment safety suggestions for firefighters and army veterans. One subcommittee is focusing its analysis particularly on these two teams primarily based on suggestions the Marijuana Coverage Undertaking has acquired.
“We must be ready for what these firefighters are going to say,” Caldwell stated, including that many have instructed him marijuana prohibition has pushed some into abusing alcohol and different substances. “A whole lot of the firefighters are saying, ‘I’d moderately work with someone who smoked a joint the night time earlier than in order that they might get an excellent night time’s sleep than coming in hung over.’”
Many firefighters and veterans have voiced their assist for medicinal hashish to deal with situations equivalent to post-traumatic stress, Caldwell stated, noting the excessive suicide price amongst veterans.
The federal authorities has estimated 17 veterans take their lives every day, however an America’s Warriors Partnership study places the quantity at 44.
This story was first published by Louisiana Illuminator.
Picture courtesy of Martin Alonso.