The workplace conversation around substance use has always been about how to prevent it. But as marajuana becomes legalized across the U.S., are HR leaders equipped to change their stance?
In 2012, Washington and Colorado were the first states to legalize the recreational use of cannabis. Since then, more and more states have petitioned for the same rights and many have won. As of April 2022, marijuana has been decriminalized in 31 states in accordance with the Marijuana Policy Project, which states that low-levels of marijuana possession are exempt from the possibility of jail time for first-time offenses. Twenty of those states, as well as Washington D.C. and Guam, have made the recreational use of the substance entirely legal.
This has left the U.S. with varying degrees of accessibility, and HR departments across the nation at a loss for how to handle it at a corporate level.
“Right now it’s a patchwork of states, but remains a federally illegal substance,” says Brett Gelbord, senior counsel with Dykema, focusing on labor and employment issues. “But [for employers], it is certainly something that is developing quickly as more states come online with either adult use statutes or by running into a medical framework.” [Read More @ EBN]
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