Last updated : November 11, 2024
What will this mean to employers and their drug-free workplace programs?
House Bill 523, which was signed into law in early June by Governor John Kasich, takes effect today in Ohio, September 8, 2016. This will make Ohio the 25th state in the country to legalize marijuana for a variety of medical conditions* for which licensed physicians can recommend the product. Although medical marijuana (which will only be allowed to be ingested as an oil, vapor or edible – not smoked) will not be available here for probably one and a half to two years, employers should prepare now in terms of how they want to handle it.
If your company does not want marijuana in the workplace – medical or otherwise – now is the time to ensure that you have a solid drug-free workplace policy and program in place. Employers are not required to permit or accommodate an employee’s use, possession or distribution of medical marijuana.
Employers may establish or maintain formal drug-free workplace policies and may fire employees who test positively for marijuana on a drug test, even if they carry a medical card and have a legitimate prescription. Additionally, employees may not be entitled to worker’s compensation benefits if the positive result occurs in conjunction with a post-accident test.
The reason that this is allowable (for now) is because the federal government does not recognize the states’ legalization of marijuana. While they do not actively prosecute growers, distributors or users of marijuana in these states, they still can and do “say no.”
This, then, supports employers’ rights to also say no. There is already legal precedence to demonstrate this, even in states where marijuana is legal for recreational use. Employers have prevailed and employees have been fired when testing positively for marijuana. Again, however, those employers had drug-free workplace programs in place and the policies were clear and were made known to the employees upon being hired by those companies.
Additional good news for employers in the Buckeye state is that the Ohio BWC is still allowed to grant discounts and rebates to companies that have drug-free workplace policies that follow the BWC guidelines. There are a number of programs that offer these incentives. If you don’t have a program in place now, but are considering one, this may be something you’d like to consider. If you need assistance in creating a drug-free workplace policy for your company, please contact the Compliance Experts at USA Mobile Drug Testing of Northeast Ohio.
Conditions for which medical marijuana is now approved in Ohio:
- AIDS
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Cancer
- Crohn’s disease
- Epilepsy or another seizure disorder
- Fibromyalgia
- Glaucoma
- Hepatitis C
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Multiple sclerosis
- Pain that is either chronic and severe or intractable
- Parkinson’s disease
- Positive status for HIV
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Sickle cell anemia
- Spinal cord disease or injury
- Tourette’s syndrome
- Traumatic brain injury
- Ulcerative colitis
- Can petition state for other conditions
