A worker involved in a crash with a workplace vehicle claims his status as a medical marijuana user should exempt him from discipline.
The employee of Denver’s Department of Safety was on duty and driving a city vehicle when he was involved in a crash.
He was immediately given a drug test that came back positive.
Denver’s City Attorney, David Fine, acknowledged the case and said they were looking into it. “It raises a lot of interesting and complicated questions,” Fine told Denver TV station CBS4.
Denver employment law attorney Emily Hobbs-Wright predicts the employee’s medical marijuana status probably won’t protect him from discipline.
Courts in other states have viewed medical marijuana the same way they view other prescription drugs: They may be legal, but that doesn’t mean you can be impaired by them while on the job.
Hobbs-Wright says employers will have to determine, using relevant medical standards, what constitutes marijuana impairment.
New Jersey just enacted a medical marijuana law, bringing the number of states with such statutes to 14.
How should businesses balance medical marijuana use and workplace safety? Let us know in the Comments Box below.
