The New York City Fire Department is going to stop marijuana testing for its firefighters and applicants. On July 14, the department issued a memo stating the decision to stop testing is in conjunction with the city’s Law Department issuing “guidance that prohibits adverse employment actions based on off-hours marijuana usage,” according to law firm […]
Rhode Island has joined the growing list of states legalizing recreational marijuana and while employers aren’t required to accommodate use of the drug at work they’re prohibited from taking adverse action for off-duty use. Governor Dan McKee signed a bill making recreational marijuana use legal in the state on May 25, with the new law […]
Marijuana legalization, medical and otherwise, is a tricky area for employers in the U.S., filled with ambiguities from state to state and even on the federal level. That’s also true for legal products derived from cannabis. A May 13 court decision involving the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), an employee taking a legal cannabis product […]
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to refrain from reviewing a pair of recent decisions made by Minnesota’s Supreme Court denying two workers’ requests for reimbursement of medical marijuana. Attorneys for both workers submitted requests asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the cases and provide guidance for lower courts, […]
With more than 100,000 deaths in 12 months, drug overdose deaths in the U.S. were at their highest point ever in 2021, yet on the flip side, marijuana legalization continues in many states. And while legalization of marijuana isn’t the cause of the drug overdose problem, it does beg the question: Does legalization of a […]
Is use of CBD oil, and a subsequent positive marijuana drug test, protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)? A federal court says no. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana dismissed an employee’s ADA discrimination suit because it’s not logical to assume an employer who conducts drug testing believes that […]
Positive drug test results in the workplace reached the highest rate in two decades in 2021, according to Quest Diagnostics’ annual Drug Testing Index. The rate of positive drug test results in the U.S. workforce reached its highest last year since 2001, the report states. Positive test result rates were up more than 30% in […]
A rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) could add a new type of drug test for transportation employees covered by federal regulations. The notice of proposed rulemaking was published in the Federal Register Feb. 28, and would see the addition of oral fluid drug testing to combat employee cheating on urine drug […]
Whether an accommodation for a medical marijuana user is reasonable is a factual determination that should be decided on a case-by-case basis rather than a conclusion based on marijuana being illegal under federal law, the Supreme Court of New Hampshire said in a Jan. 14 decision. The court reversed a lower court decision dismissing a […]
