The elections are over and more states have come on line to legalize recreational marijuana but this doesn’t come without a rider. Four states have officially come on as recreational states and 21 are now legal for medical but only TWO of those 21 states have a law in place that actually protects workers from getting fired for failing a drug test at work! Outrageous? I think so. Unless you live in Arizona or Deleware, your ass could be grass if your piss cup gets popped. In fact when it comes to recreational states, there’s no law that protects smokers.
So go ahead, take a flight to Colorado…even move there if you want but just remember you still have to pass a drug test if you want to keep your job. While some states, including New York, say employers can’t fire you for being a medical marijuana patient they don’t say anything about what happens if you fail a drug test…and that’s where we’re starting to see a lot more gray area that no one seemed to think about BEFORE thinking how great it was for marijuana to be legal for recreational OR medical use.
Moreover, with Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia recently voting to legalize recreational marijuana use two years after Colorado and Washington passed their own laws, the army in particular has gone to great lengths to remind troops that state law holds no sway for servicemen. The double standard here puts soldiers stationed in any of the 20 states and Washington in an increasingly compromised position. The military has even gone as far as stating that it will be issuing “frequent drug tests” that will have severe penalties to those who don’t pass; including court martial. Civilians caught bringing marijuana plants or infused products onto military bases face potential legal action no matter the state law.
Despite these “consequences” several reports on the subject like the one from SunSentinel find that businesses in particular are more likely to make individual judgments when it comes to employees with medical marijuana prescriptions. As far as recreational cases go, the outcome is yet to be seen but for now if you live in any of the 25 states that allow some kind of use for marijuana, be warned because you could be in for a cold dose of reality if you find yourself in a “testy” situation by your employer.
MAPH Enterprises, LLC | (305) 414-0128 | 1501 Venera Ave, Coral Gables, FL 33146 | new@marijuanastocks.com
1 comment
I get some work situations where employer’s don’t want people high at work. But they also need to take into account that marijuana stays in the system for 30 days. If people smoke on the weekends, same as someone who drinks on the weekends, the smoker is going to fail a drug test where the drinker isn’t. There needs to be some sort of policies that take that situation into consideration.