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Comprehension. the hazy issue of weed and work. Patchwork laws
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COMPREHENSION
1. Answer the questions.
- What are the core features of the Dutch system?
- What methods are used in the Dutch policy?
- What does this policy emphasize?
- Enumerate the key elements of the Dutch drug policy?
- What was the result of decriminalization of soft drugs?
- Do you approve of such an approach?
- What kind of drug policy could work in our country?
- Are other countries ready to legalize at least soft drugs?
- Is legalization the only way out?
THE HAZY ISSUE OF WEED AND WORK
More people are smoking weed these days, sparking a haze of complications and confusion in the workplace.
A growing number of states in the US – and countries around the world – are legalising or decriminalising recreational and medical marijuana, forcing businesses to grapple with how to deal with employees who use the drug and could come to work still feeling its mind-altering effects.
But unlike alcohol or many other drugs, marijuana stays in a person’s system for weeks or months after usage, which creates a tricky situation for workplace drug tests. It’s entirely possible that employees could use marijuana in their personal time in a state or country where it’s entirely legal to do so – and be fired for testing positive on a drug test when they’re back at work days or weeks later.
The proliferation of different, sometimes conflicting laws and policies on marijuana use is especially vexing for companies operating across the globe – or even just in multiple states within the US.
In the US, marijuana is illegal under federal law, but 30 states and the District of Columbia have legalised it for medical or recreational purposes. More than 20% of American adults use marijuana and 14% do so regularly, according to a survey this year by Yahoo News and Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. And marijuana use is expected to jump significantly over the next few years in North America. Voters in California, by far the largest state with nearly 40 million residents, legalised recreational marijuana last November. Meanwhile, Canada is poised to legalise cannabis for recreational purposes next year. (Both California and Canada long ago legalised the drug for medical treatment. )
Marijuana use, however, is still illegal in many countries, including the UK, France, Ireland, Indonesia, China, Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia. But personal use in varying quantities has been decriminalised in such countries as Italy, Mexico, Argentina, Austria, Chile, Colombia, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland, while medical use of the drug is legal in many countries, including Australia, the Czech Republic, Germany and Turkey. Uruguay became the first country to fully legalize the production and sale of recreational marijuana. Pharmacies began selling the drug there this month.
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“You almost need counsel in each country you operate in so that you set up a workplace drug policy that won’t violate that country’s laws, ” says Tony Fiore, a lawyer at Kegler Brown Hill & Ritter in Ohio.
Patchwork laws
Some US laws and court rulings permit companies to arbitrarily fire employees who test positive for marijuana in states where it’s now legal. For example, the Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that employers can fire workers who test positive for cannabis even when they’re using if for medical reasons. Because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, the court upheld the firing of Brandon Coats, a quadriplegic telephone customer service representative at Dish Network who was using the drug to treat painful muscle spasms and tested positive in a random test.
According to court records, he wasn’t accused of being under the influence or impaired at work, and he said he never used weed while in the office. Coats had worked at Dish for three years and received satisfactory performance reviews before his termination in 2010. He didn’t perform any hazardous activities at work and never requested accommodations for his medical marijuana use.
Other US states have enacted laws that require employers to try to make accommodations for people using weed to alleviate pain or for other health reasons – as long as the drug doesn’t affect their performance in the workplace.
Drug testing practices and laws vary widely across the globe. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction reports that only Finland, Ireland and Norway have legislation specifically addressing drug testing in the workplace. In Norway, for example, drug testing is considered a violation of the personal integrity of an employee or job applicant and should be conducted only when strictly necessary, such as to protect the safety of the worker or other people.
Canadian employers generally have much less freedom to conduct drug tests than US businesses. “Pre-employment testing isn’t typically allowed and most employers can’t do random testing either, ” says Darryl Hiscocks, labour and employment lawyer at Torys LLP in Toronto. “Employers often feel caught in the middle. They have to meet their health and safety obligations such as with workers who may drive a vehicle, but they also have to accommodate medical marijuana users and employees addicted to marijuana, which can be considered a disability. ”
He believes that businesses should ask employees to inform their managers if they are using marijuana to treat a health problem and provide their prescription. “It’s a matter of balancing employee privacy interests and human rights with workplace health and safety concerns, ” Hiscocks says.
Because of the patchwork of laws, employees who rely on marijuana for health reasons or are regular recreational users may face limited career prospects. “Their opportunity to move may be eliminated if they’re authorised to use medical marijuana in one state, but it isn’t allowed in another state or country, ” Fiore says. “It also would hurt the employers, who couldn’t transfer some workers and their needed skills overseas. ”
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