{"id":58105,"date":"2022-11-16T11:47:12","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T19:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/11\/16\/louisiana-task-force-weighs-employment-protections-for-medical-marijuana-patients\/"},"modified":"2022-11-16T17:46:12","modified_gmt":"2022-11-17T01:46:12","slug":"louisiana-task-force-weighs-employment-protections-for-medical-marijuana-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/11\/16\/louisiana-task-force-weighs-employment-protections-for-medical-marijuana-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"Louisiana Task Force Weighs Employment Protections For Medical Marijuana Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to penalize people who are legitimately taking medical marijuana who aren\u2019t impaired.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Victor Skinner, The Center Square<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Louisiana legislative task force held multiple meetings on Tuesday to explore and craft recommendations to resolve employment issues concerning medical marijuana<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Three subcommittees of the Employment and Medical Marijuana Task Force convened to discuss a variety of employment issues involving medical marijuana, from employment protections in other states to current testing options, to specific concerns for \u201csafety sensitive\u201d jobs like firefighters and first responders.<\/p>\n

Members of the task force outlined legislation adopted in New Jersey, Indiana, Connecticut, Alabama and other states in recent years to protect employees from discrimination for medical marijuana use, as well as provisions to protect employers.<\/p>\n

Kevin Caldwell, task force member representing the Marijuana Policy Project, noted that Alabama recognizes medical marijuana as medicine, but does not prohibit employers from drug testing, while Arkansas protections \u201cdo not require employers to accommodate ingestion in a workplace or an employee working under the influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur neighbors to the north are just making sure employees are not coming in under the influence, and they\u2019re not ingesting or using their medicine while they\u2019re at work,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that is language we should most certainly be looking at in recommendations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caldwell also highlighted legislation adopted in California this year that takes effect in 2024 that \u201cdoes include workers in building and construction trades and instances where federal contracts, licenses or funding require otherwise, and positions requiring a federal background clearance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this language is important, as well. I think it would protect a lot of the industries that have concerns about this, particularly the oil and gas industry,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have federal codes that supersede what the state does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laws in the District of Columbia also specifically cite exceptions from medical marijuana protections for workers impaired on the job, or if they work in a safety sensitive position, Caldwell noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think these are just some basic examples of where we can effectively go in the short term, and then possibly look down the road for further protections,\u201d he said, adding that any change to marijuana scheduling on the federal level could change what\u2019s necessary.<\/p>\n

Task force member Troy Prevot, a physician assistant involved in employment drug testing, highlighted how testing for impairment will factor into any recommendations, and noted there\u2019s numerous efforts to develop technology to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to somehow\u2026deal with impairment,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to penalize people who are legitimately taking medical marijuana who aren\u2019t impaired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another aspect is defining safety sensitive positions that may be exempted from protections, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of discussion about what that means,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty broad definition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caldwell noted that the task force will hear from first responders, firefighters and others in potentially safety sensitive positions who want to use medical marijuana in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Task force member and workers compensation attorney Denis Juge suggested requiring employees to notify employers about medical marijuana use, both for safety and to protect employer rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am concerned that any law that enables a worker to have marijuana, what impact that would have on the defense of intoxication,\u201d he said. \u201cI think at the very least, the employer would be entitled to have notice from the employee that they are taking medical marijuana, so that absent that notice the employer would be able to raise the defense of intoxication.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter Robins-Brown, task force member with Louisiana Progress, questioned whether the notice could be used to discriminate against employees, and whether the issue should be expanded to opioid users.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s something that needs to be considered because right now we don\u2019t have that,\u201d Juge said.<\/p>\n

Other discussions centered on accounting for massive employee shortages in multiple industries, and how any recommendations could make the hiring challenges worse, particularly for firefighters and first responders.<\/p>\n

The meetings<\/a> Tuesday are the latest in a series<\/a> leading up to the 2023 legislative session spawned by a resolution authored by Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans. The resolution requires the task force to forward recommendations<\/a> to lawmakers by February 1. The next session starts on April 10.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by The Center Square.<\/a><\/p>\n

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The post Louisiana Task Force Weighs Employment Protections For Medical Marijuana Patients<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Louisiana Task Force Weighs Employment Protections For Medical Marijuana Patients<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to penalize people who are legitimately taking medical marijuana who aren\u2019t impaired.\u201d By Victor Skinner, The Center Square A Louisiana legislative task force held multiple meetings on Tuesday to explore and craft recommendations to resolve employment issues concerning medical marijuana. Three subcommittees of the Employment and MedicalContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58105"}],"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\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58106,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58105\/revisions\/58106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}