Hey man, I gotta go to work in a minute.
Posted on 02/10/2014 6:17:24 AM PST by raccoonradio
The state’s new medical marijuana law will force hard choices on employers and workers — forcing some to fire medicinal pot users while others will have to make tough calls on whether employees’ drug use is interfering with their work.
Public safety employers such as the Boston Fire Department say it won’t tolerate pot use, even as medication.
“Boston Fire does conduct random drug and alcohol testing of its uniform force,” spokesman Steve MacDonald said. “Marijuana use is not allowed.”
Meanwhile, Associated Industries of Massachusetts is advising businesses not to fire employees just for using medical marijuana, even if they fail drug tests — unless they come to work stoned.
“The bottom line for the employer is that people cannot be impaired in the workplace,” AIM spokesman Chris Geehern said. “If an employer becomes aware an employee is using medical marijuana, that in and of itself is not grounds for taking any action. The break comes when that employee appears to be impaired in the workplace.”
Massachusetts and 19 other states allow people with a range of medical conditions to use different forms of marijuana as treatment, but pot remains illegal under federal law. Signs of drug use in public transit workers, truckers and commercial pilots who are tested following accidents might also lead to their termination.
“If you’re covered by federal DOT drug testing, that’s what holds,” Geehern said.
Kabrina Krebel Chang, an employment law expert at Boston University’s School of Management, said even with the Bay State’s new medical marijuana law, employers maintain the right to fire a worker for failing a drug test.
“If you’re an employee who medicates with marijuana, there are very few laws that protect you if you fail your company’s drug tests,” she said.
Employers, she added, are reluctant to make exceptions to drug policies and won’t want to be responsible for checking whether their workers have authorization to use marijuana.
Partners HealthCare, the largest private employer in Massachusetts, with 60,000 workers, has not yet decided how to deal with the issue of medical marijuana use among employees, said spokesman Rich Copp.
“Partners HealthCare, like many other employers, is in the early stages of evaluating what changes may need to be made to existing HR policies. Any revisions to our policies will be made guided by appropriate statutes and with the best interests of our patients and our employees in mind,” Copp said.
Geehern said, “We’re urging employers to take this on a case-by-case basis. This is all new. They should look at each case separately rather than blindly apply
a policy.”
There are plenty of companies that forbid tobacco use and they do random testing for it.
But dude, the doc gave it to me!
How are you supposed to tell if they’re stoned or just plain stupid?
People who got drunk on the job were never tolerated, but at least you could smell it on them and you knew what the problem was. Unless they’re toking up in the elevator, however, it’s going to be hard to assert that your employees are stoned and not just incompetent and dumb.
The current de minimis cutoff levels are pretty low for MJ and if you blow this on a drug test, you WILL be fired if you are subject to federal, state and many private employer programs.
CO is wrestling with this at the state level, but even if they raise the levels, it won’t change fed requirements.
Hey man, I gotta go to work in a minute.
easy peasy.. Employers can require what ever they want.
No cell phones.
No kid at work.
No drug users.
Plus, federally, it’s still illegal.
The next step in the planned disintegration of our country is for it to become illegal to fire them.
Not to mention a dirty UA in a legal state or if u move from Wash or Colorado
I have always thought UAs intrusive except for safety related jobs
Or Mr Executive Order can legalize it and tax the hell out of it, as someone on my Facebook pointed out. (One thing’s for sure: despite all the places where you aren’t allowed to smoke, tobacco is still legal and will remain so as long as the govt can make a ton of money in taxes on it.)
From RJReynolds:
>>Since 1998, governments at all levels have collected more than $484.6 BILLION in cigarette taxes (including sales tax) and payments from smokers.
The government per-pack profit from cigarettes in 2012 was $3.78 (or 66 percent of the cost of a pack of cigarettes); almost ten times the profit of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
Adult smokers make up about 18 percent of the population, yet smokers as a group are the only ones singled out for more and more “sin” taxes.
Cigarette tax increase proposals are made frequently - usually to fund new or expanded government programs.
http://www.rjrt.com/taxpays.aspx
your employees are stoned and not just incompetent and dumb.
YES,the US Congress and Executive branch!!!
" ...I would rather be governed by the first 2000 names in the Boston phone book ....."
We really need to pass a law requiring drug tests for the President and Congress
LOL! Great idea!
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