Legal Weed Law Gives Employers a Useless Remedy

Common Enterprise

By Ray Cantor, NJBIA Vice President of Authorities Affairs On Might 30, 2022

Grownup leisure hashish is now authorized in New Jersey and with it begins a brand new problem for employers in search of to keep up a drug-free working atmosphere. To assist companies navigate this new panorama, NJBIA not too long ago held a seminar on how employers can maintain workplaces secure.

The brand new legislation doesn’t simply legalize grownup leisure hashish, it additionally limits an employer’s proper to take employment actions towards staff who fail a hashish drug check. Testing should be carried out by licensed Office Impairment Recognition Consultants (WIREs) who’re additionally required to do a bodily examination to find out impairment. A failed hashish drug check alone is just not sufficient to fireside an worker.

As if this new regulatory burden was not sufficient, the Hashish Regulatory Fee has but to undertake rules to certify WIREs. Thus, whereas the legislation requires WIREs, the CRC’s failure to supply for his or her certification leaves employers with a brand new requirement and a treatment they can’t use.

So, how do employers shield the office from cannabis-impaired workers? Our panel of authorized, security and HR specialists have been fast to level out impairment points should not new.

As many as one in seven adults has used hashish within the final 30 days, sufficient to make them fail a drug check as a result of hashish stays in an individual’s system a very long time after use. A failed drug check doesn’t essentially imply an worker is impaired.

Our panelists all argued for employers to take a complete method, particularly for security delicate jobs. Set up insurance policies on hashish and different drug use and replace present insurance policies. The specialists additionally steered employers examine a cognitive impairment check to see if an worker is “match for responsibility.”

A number of technological options, together with a cell cognitive testing app, have been mentioned and could also be of worth in figuring out if workers are impaired, whether or not it’s from medication, fatigue, stress or different causes that forestall them from working safely.

Employers have been additionally urged to work with tinheritor insurance coverage firm to make sure their enterprise is satisfactorily protected. Given the uncertainty surrounding hashish testing, it’s best to have adequate protection and set up protocols to reply constantly to accidents and decide employee impairment.

The legalization of leisure hashish brings larger challenges to sustaining office security. Having good insurance policies and procedures in place can reduce these dangers. 

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