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Illinois lawmakers have sent a bill to the governor that would make it so courts cannot deny petitions to expunge or seal records based on a positive drug test for marijuana.<\/p>\n
However, a separate House-passed bill concerning workplace protections for employees who use cannabis off-the-job stalled in the Senate before the chamber adjourned for the session.<\/p>\n
The bill sent to Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) last week would revise the state\u2019s Criminal Identification Act to stipulate that courts \u201cshall not deny a petition for expungement or sealing because the petitioner has submitted a drug test taken within 30 days before the filing of the petition for expungement or sealing that indicates a positive test for the presence of cannabis within the petitioner\u2019s body,\u201d a synopsis says.<\/p>\n
Rep. Carol Ammons (D), the bill\u2019s sponsor, said the measure<\/a> closes an \u201cexisting loophole\u201d that could inadvertently impact people who are eligible for relief following the legalization of marijuana for adult use in 2020.<\/p>\n UPDATE: HB4392 has officially passed the Senate and now goes to @govpritzker<\/a> for approval! This is an exciting step forward in closing the existing loopholes that still criminalize Illinoisans for using cannabis years after its legalization. #cannabisjustice<\/a> \u2014 Rep. Carol Ammons (@StateRepAmmons) April 7, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Following a year of implementation, the governor took pride in announcing that more than 500,000 expungements and pardons<\/a> had been processed for people with low-level marijuana offenses on their records.<\/p>\n Still, advocates are disappointed with the outcome of the separate employment-related legislation from Rep. Bob Morgan (D) and Sen. Robert Peters (D) that would have provided protections to workers who lawfully use marijuana off the job and prevented discrimination against most job applicants who test positive for cannabis.<\/p>\n The measure passed the House last month<\/a>, but it was slightly amended in a Senate committee before being scheduled for a third and final reading that ultimately didn\u2019t occur before the chamber adjourned on Saturday morning. If passed by the Senate it still would\u2019ve needed to go back to the House for the amendment to be adopted before heading to Pritzker\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n However, a staffer for Peters told Marijuana Moment that the bill necessarily isn\u2019t dead for the year, per se. The Senate might be adjourned, but there\u2019s still a possibility that it could be further tweaked and taken back up before the formal end of General Assembly business for 2022 when lawmakers return this fall for a veto session.<\/p>\n A hearing for the legislation was previously postponed following a short debate<\/a> in the Senate Executive Committee late last month, but the panel took it back up last week and advanced it to the full chamber where it stalled.<\/p>\n The bill<\/a> as amended would have provided protections for workers who use cannabis in compliance with state law during non-working hours and when they\u2019re not on-call. People contracted by the federal Department of Transportation would not have been eligible for the safeguard, however.<\/p>\n There also wouldn\u2019t have been any further protections added with respect to the state\u2019s workers\u2019 compensation law.<\/p>\n \u2014 Under the legislation, employers could have terminated an employee over a positive THC test if they worked with heavy machinery or aircraft, carried a firearm, performed emergency services or had other safety-sensitive responsibilities. Workers could also have been fired if they were found to be impaired on the job.<\/p>\n Organizations that are focused on drug abstinence would also have been exempt from the policy change.<\/p>\n The bill was only slightly amended in committee in the Senate to broaden language related to workers who operate heavy machinery in the manufacturing sector. The bill as originally approved by the House would have only made a positive THC test a fireable offense for workers who use heavy machinery at retail\u00a0distribution<\/em>\u00a0centers.<\/p>\n While advocates viewed the legislation as a step in the right direction, there were limitations to the protections. For example, employers could have terminated workers whose test results met or exceeded the legal limits set forth in the state\u2019s vehicle code, which is meant to prohibit impaired driving.<\/p>\n State law stipulates that drivers are considered impaired if they test positive for THC at a concentration of greater than 5 nanograms per milliliter of blood\u2014or 10 ng\/mL of other bodily fluids, such as saliva or urine\u2014within two hours of driving. Critics have raised concerns about that threshold for workers, arguing that THC levels can remain high in users\u2019 bloodstreams days or weeks after demonstrable impairment.<\/p>\n The restriction could have theoretically put employees\u2019 jobs at risk even for off-duty cannabis use if they consume marijuana the night before clocking in for a morning shift, for example.<\/p>\n The state-level legalization movement has prompted policymakers across the U.S. to grapple with questions concerning drug testing policy.<\/p>\n Following the enactment of adult-use legalization in New York, the state Department of Labor announced a policy change barring most employers from\u00a0drug testing certain workers for marijuana<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Washington, D.C., a Council committee unanimously approved a bill last month to ban most workplaces from subjecting job applicants to pre-employment marijuana testing<\/a>. It would expand on previous legislation the D.C. Council approved to protect local government employees against\u00a0workplace discrimination due to their use of medical cannabis<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last month, however, a Colorado House committee rejected a bill<\/a>\u00a0that would have provided protections for workers in that state who use marijuana off the job. As introduced, the measure also would have allowed medical cannabis patients to use marijuana at work, although later amendments scaled back those protections.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, as Missouri lawmakers work to advance marijuana legalization in the state, the St. Louis County Council approved a bill last month to ban pre-employment and random drug testing<\/a>\u00a0for cannabis for most county workers.<\/p>\n The Kansas City, Missouri Council also\u00a0voted last year to enact a similar policy drug testing policy change<\/a>\u00a0for cannabis.<\/p>\n A nationwide labor report recently found that drug testing rates at U.S. workplaces\u00a0have fallen considerably over the past quarter-century<\/a>, as states began ending marijuana prohibition. The government-collected data also offered a glance at what types of industries are screening workers for drugs the most and the least.<\/p>\n Federal and military policies regarding drug testing policy have also been a key area of interest as more states move to legalize cannabis.<\/p>\n For example, the director of national intelligence (DNI) said earlier this year that federal employers\u00a0shouldn\u2019t outright reject security clearance applicants<\/a>\u00a0over past use and should use discretion when it comes to those with cannabis investments in their stock portfolios.<\/p>\n FBI updated its hiring policies last year to make it so candidates are only automatically disqualified from joining the agency if they\u00a0admit to having used marijuana within one year<\/a>\u00a0of applying. Previously, prospective employees of the agency could not have used cannabis within the past three years.<\/p>\n The Department of Transportation also took a different approach to its cannabis policy in 2020, stating in a notice that\u00a0it would not be testing drivers for CBD<\/a>.<\/p>\n And while the Biden administration has instituted a policy of\u00a0granting waivers to certain workers<\/a>\u00a0who admit to prior cannabis use, it\u2019s come under fire from advocates following reports that it fired or otherwise punished dozens of staffers who were honest about their history with marijuana.<\/p>\n White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has previously\u00a0attempted to minimize the fallout<\/a>, without much success, and her office released a statement last year stipulating that\u00a0nobody was fired for \u201cmarijuana usage from years ago,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0nor has anyone been terminated \u201cdue to casual or infrequent use during the prior 12 months.\u201d<\/p>\n A powerful congressional committee\u00a0released a report last year<\/a>\u00a0that urges federal agencies to reconsider policies that result in the firing of employees who use marijuana legally in accordance with state law.<\/p>\n Military branches in general have been notably consistent in their policies\u2014prohibiting service members from using any form of cannabis, including hemp-based products that have been federally legalized.<\/p>\n Last week, for example, members of the Navy were specifically told not to drink a new Rockstar energy drink<\/a>\u00a0from Pepsi that contains hemp seed oil.<\/p>\n That advisory from the Naval War College is a follow-up on an initial Navy-wide notice in 2018 that informed ranks that\u00a0they\u2019re barred from using CBD and hemp products<\/a>\u00a0no matter their legality. Then in 2020 it released an update\u00a0explaining why it enacted the rule change<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2019, the Department of Defense (DOD) announced a policy\u00a0barring all active and reserve service members from using hemp products<\/a>, including CBD. DOD more broadly reaffirmed that CBD is off limits to service members\u00a0in earlier notices published in 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n About one year after hemp was federally legalized, the Air Force sent out a notice that\u00a0similarly warned against using CBD products<\/a>\u00a0that are commonly found on the market.<\/p>\n A Massachusetts base of the U.S. Air Force told pilots last year that they could face disciplinary action for\u00a0possessing any type of hemp product<\/a>, even if it\u2019s \u201cfor your pet.\u201d<\/p>\n Officials with the military branch also said the previous year that it wants its members to be extra careful\u00a0around \u201cgrandma\u2019s miracle sticky buns\u201d<\/a>\u00a0that might contain marijuana.<\/p>\n The Coast Guard said that\u00a0sailors can\u2019t use marijuana<\/a>\u00a0or visit state-legal dispensaries.<\/p>\n And NASA, which is not part of the military, warned that CBD products\u00a0could contain unauthorized THC concentrations<\/a>\u00a0that could cost employees their jobs if they fail a drug test.<\/p>\n SAMHSA may have influenced these prior policy updates. It released guidance to federal agency drug program coordinators<\/a>\u00a0in 2019 that outlined concerns about THC turning up in CBD products and causing failed drug tests. The agency\u00a0issued an updated warning<\/a>\u00a0in 2020 after several more states voted to legalize marijuana.<\/p>\n Kentucky Governor Explores Executive Action On Medical Marijuana Reform As House-Passed Bill Stalls<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis\/Side Pocket Images.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Illinois Bill To Close Marijuana Expungement \u2018Loophole\u2019 Heads To Governor, While Workplace Protection Measure Stalls<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Illinois lawmakers have sent a bill to the governor that would make it so courts cannot deny petitions to expunge or seal records based on a positive drug test for marijuana. However, a separate House-passed bill concerning workplace protections for employees who use cannabis off-the-job stalled in the Senate beforeContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":54190,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54189"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54191,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54189\/revisions\/54191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Illinois Bill To Close Marijuana Expungement \u2018Loophole\u2019 Heads To Governor, While Workplace Protection Measure Stalls<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"