Last updated : May 19, 2025
Legalization of marijuana in Ohio – Now what do employers do to maintain a drug free workplace?
Recently, Ohioans voted to allow adults 21 and older to buy, possess, and grow marijuana, and to permit the state to impose a 10% sales tax on products purchased at a licensed dispensary.
Technically, initiated statutes like Issue 2 take effect 30 days after they pass. However because this is a state law versus an amendment to the state’s constitution, the legislature has the authority to modify and refine the law. In addition, the state’s newly formed Division of Cannabis Control has nine months to hammer out the details – including the strength of the marijuana sold in dispensaries, and how vendors that grow and sell it will become licensed.
As it stands now, the law supports employers’ efforts to maintain a drug-free workplace. For example:
• Employers do not have to allow employees to use, possess, or distribute cannabis;
• They are allowed to create or maintain their drug testing policy, drug-free workplace policy, or zero-tolerance drug policy;
• They are allowed to hire, discharge, discipline, and take “adverse employment action” against employees who use or possess the drug; and
• An employee who is discharged from employment because of their use of cannabis will be considered to have been discharged for “just cause.”
Please review your policies, and contact us at USA Mobile Drug Testing of Northeast Ohio to answer any questions you might have. Those companies who have DOT employees under FMCSA, FTA, PHSMA, FRA, and the FAA are still subject to Marijuana in the panel. Recreational Marijuana is still illegal at the Federal level and regardless of the state law, DOT employees must follow state laws.
Please call USA Mobile Drug Testing of Northeast Ohio at 440-653-5003 or email Chelsea Vodopivec at [email protected] for any questions you may have!
