By Tommy Eden
19 years after
voters made California the first state in the nation to legalize the medical
use of marijuana, Governor Jerry Brown on Friday October 9, 2015 signed a
package of 3 bills to regulate the California medicinal-cannabis industry:
Assembly Bill 266, Assembly Bill 243 and Senate Bill 643. In 1996 California
voters approved Proposition 215, the law that made it legal for doctors to
recommend pot to their patients.
The stated
purpose of the legislation known as the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety
Act establishes the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation along with
comprehensive regulations in California for licensing, taxation, quality
control, shipping, product packaging and pesticide standards. The laws are
scheduled to go into effect in 2018. It is highly anticipated that one or more
measures to legalize the recreational use of marijuana will be on the 2016
California ballot.
Common Sense Counsel: So what should an employer who has
employees assigned to work in a medical marijuana State like California do?
Consider these 7 Steps an employer can take to successfully walk the workplace
marijuana tightrope and keep your workplace from going up in smoke:
1. Understand the laws on Medical and Recreational Marijuana
that are specific to states where employees report for duty;
2. Adopt a legally vetted pre-duty prescription medication
and impairing effects substances safety policy;
3. Update employee job descriptions to cover critical safety
sensitive issues;
4. Adopt a handbook policy on reasonable accommodations in
those more difficult states and situations;
5. Let employees know your stance on Medical and
Recreational Marijuana use;
6. Update your drug-free workplace policy and forms; and
7. Conduct Supervisor Reasonable Suspicion Drug and Alcohol
Training and Employee Awareness sessions with a specific emphasis on the
workplace dangers of Marijuana use and misuse.
Tommy Eden is a partner working out of the Constangy, Brooks
& Smith, LLP offices in Opelika, AL and West Point, GA and a member of the
ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law and serves on the Board of Directors
for the East Alabama SHRM Chapter. He can be contacted at teden@constangy.com
or 334-246-2901. Blog at www.alabamaatwork.com and follow on twitter
@tommyeden3
