Ever since states began legalizing medical marijuana more than 20 years ago, employers have been caught in a quandary about how to deal with formerly illegal drugs in the workplace.
Conflicting state and federal laws, employees coming to work impaired, offering marijuana as an alternative medication to injured workers and adapting preemployment and post-injury drug-testing protocols are just some of the issues employers must wrestle with when medical marijuana and, increasingly, recreational marijuana are legal.
Over the years, experts have offered guidance — frequently interspersed with a seemingly never-ending sequence of pot puns — that employers “in the weeds” should exercise caution when dealing with the issue of legal marijuana and the “hazy” legal environment.
The courts have also weighed in, sometimes adding clarity and sometimes not.
The National Council of Compensation Insurance Inc.’s most recent update on legal developments in the United States shows there’s some way to go before employers can devise concrete policies on the issue.
For example, the Oklahoma Supreme Court will review an appeals court ruling that the presence of THC in a blood sample taken after an accident does not automatically mean an employee was intoxicated and should be denied workers compensation benefits. According to medical experts, THC can stay in a person’s blood for up to a month or more.
On the other hand, a comp judge in Florida ruled that the state’s medical marijuana law does not require employers and insurers to pay for medical marijuana in breach of the federal Controlled Substances Act.
Meanwhile, if the findings of a study published earlier this year are accurate, employers should also be concerned about the knock-on effect that recreational marijuana use may have on their employees’ health, in particular their eating habits. According to a paper by Michele Baggio at the University of Connecticut and Alberto Chong at Georgia State University, an analysis of retail scanner data in states where recreational marijuana use is legal shows what may be heightened attacks of — you guessed it — “the munchies.”
The researchers found, among other things, that in counties in states where marijuana had recently been legalized, monthly sales of high-calorie food increased by 3.1% for ice cream, 4.1% for cookies and 5.3% for chips. With corporations increasingly looking to drive wellness throughout their enterprises, this might be viewed as an unexpected setback.
Absent changes in federal law, employers must deal with the reality of a patchwork of state laws, variable societal views on soft drugs and a sustained trend toward increased legal use of marijuana.
As a result, workplace policies must try and pull off the difficult task of keeping safety a priority while still being flexible enough to adapt to the changing legal environment. Oh, and make sure there are plenty of healthy treats in the snack machine.
