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Medical Marijuana & the Workplace


Medical marijuana is one of the emerging labor & employment topics that is starting to show up in workplaces across the country (along with transgender matters).  In the Northeast, both Pennsylvania and Ohio are at the forefront of the issue as both states have either legalized medical marijuana (Pennsylvania) or appear close to doing so (Ohio).  The question then inevitably turns to how this impacts employers and employees in each state.

In Pennsylvania, the state is set to legalize medical marijuana after the state legislature passed Senate Bill No. 3 and Governor Tom Wolf is expected to sign it into law.  Under the law, as it relates to medical marijuana in the workplace, employers in the state will be prohibited from discharging, threatening, refusing to hire or otherwise discriminating or retaliating against an employee on the basis of that employee's status as a person certified to use medical marijuana.  Before employers start to get worried, the law does not require employers to make any accommodations for employees to use medical marijuana on work property or any place of employment.  As well, employers will not be prohibited from disciplining an employee for being under the influence of medical marijuana in the workplace. 

As for Ohio, there are currently two ballot initiatives on the matter along with House Bill 523 as it relates to legalizing medical marijuana.  Under house Bill 523, Ohio employers would not be required to accommodate an employee's use of medical marijuana nor would an employer be prohibited from refusing to hire an applicant because of their medical marijuana use.  Interesting to note that under this Bill, "A person who is discharged from employment because of that person's use of medical marijuana shall be considered to have been discharged for just cause."

It will be interesting to see how these medical marijuana issues play out in the workplace going forward.  Something tells me this is not the last we have heard of medical marijuana in the workplace...



For those interested, additional information on Ohio's proposed law can be found here: search-prod.lis.state.oh.us/solarapi/v1/general_assembly_131/bills/hb523/IN/00?format=pdf
 

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