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The Ongoing Medical Marijuana in the Workplace Controversy

As with the implementation of many new practices, the medical marijuana issue has brought up a number of questions about its use in the workplace.  One such issue involves an employer’s zero tolerance drug policy and how it is affected by an employee being licensed for medical marijuana.  Another is the actual use of medical marijuana on the job.  Can the employee smoke it on the job, or can he smoke it at his lunch break?  Is he allowed to bring it on the premises?

Here are some of the additional but important questions asked in a recent article in the Missoulian

“Should companies test their employees? If a company allows a person to use marijuana on the job, what happens if that person does something that creates a dangerous situation? Does the presence of marijuana in the bloodstream mean that a worker is impaired?”

To be…or not to be…stoned…that is the new question for which few have concrete answers.  There are the state law allowing for the legal licensing of medical marijuana, the the federal laws prohibiting the intake of marijuana, medical or not.

This is an ongoing issue and will not subside anytime soon.  I suspect we will have assorted rulings from different courts until this whole issue is finally resolved.   I have written about this issues many times now, including one recent article entitled, Background Checks for the Medical Marijuana Permit.  In that article, I ask if there will eventually be a background check verifying the legitimacy and the currency of a medical marijuana permit.   With the prominence of Photoshop and the like,  it would be small wonder of the number of job applicants who present a counterfeit medical marijuana permit, much the same way as we see bogus diplomas that falsify education verification.   For that matter, we even see supposedly legal documents that are supposed to verify that an employment candidate’s criminal records have been sealed or expunged, or plea bargained down to a lesser offense.

But at the end of the day, the largest consideration will revolve around the liability factors an employer may encounter when a stoned employee hurts himself or someone else via a workplace accident of some kind.   What then?  Nobody knows.  Stay tuned.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.