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Although both medicinal and now recreational consumption of marijuana have been legalized in California, this legalization did not impact an employer’s right to discipline or even terminate employees for marijuana use. That could change for medical marijuana users if a bill pending before the California legislature becomes law.  To read the rest of this article,…

A provision of Maine’s recreational marijuana law prohibits employers from taking adverse employment actions for off-premises marijuana use, as of February 1, 2018. This law effectively prevents Maine employers from testing for marijuana for pre-employment purposes.  The law also affects employers who employ employees subject to federal drug and alcohol testing regulations as well as…

The Maine House of Representative upheld November 6, 2017 Governor Paul R. LePage’s veto of a bill to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana. The 74-62 vote fell 17 votes short of the two-thirds margin required to override the Governor’s veto.  The bill had been drafted by a special committee that was supposed to implement a…

Last November, Florida voters overwhelmingly voted to amend the Florida Constitution to permit the use of medical marijuana. The constitutional amendment went into effect on January 3, 2017, and required regulations to be implemented no later than July 3, 2017. On June 9, 2017, the Florida Senate passed a bill relating to medical use of…

Workplace drug and alcohol testing in West Virginia traditionally has been scrutinized by the courts and has been available to employers in limited circumstances.  That will change dramatically this summer when the state’s new drug and alcohol testing law, the West Virginia Safer Workplace Act, takes effect.  Passed by the state legislature on April 8,…

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice signed legislation that legalizes the use of marijuana for medicinal uses on April 19, 2017. The new law, Senate Bill 386, known as “The West Virginia Medical Cannabis Act,” permits patients suffering from serious medical conditions including cancer, ALS, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, neuropathies, Huntington’s disease, Crohn’s…

Last November, Maine was one of four states in which voters approved a new recreational marijuana law. Maine’s law took effect on January 30, 2017; however, emergency legislation passed on January 27, 2017 delayed the implementation of certain provisions of the law.  Specifically, the emergency legislation:

  • Delayed the effective date of most of the provisions

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President Trump signed a Congressional Joint Resolution March 31 that will permit states to pass measures allowing for broader drug testing of applicants for unemployment benefits. The resolution nullified a U.S. Department of Labor final rule issued in August 2016 that permitted states to enact legislation to conduct drug testing of applicants for unemployment benefits…