SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California may quickly develop into the seventh state to verify individuals gained’t lose their jobs in the event that they smoke marijuana when they’re off the clock.
State lawmakers on Tuesday handed a invoice that will cease corporations from punishing staff who fail a sure kind of drug check that detects not whether or not an individual is excessive, however whether or not the particular person has used marijuana in any respect in latest days.
These assessments, which depend on urine or hair samples, search for a substance that the physique makes when it breaks down THC, the principle psychoactive compound in marijuana. However that substance, referred to as metabolites, can stay in an individual’s physique for weeks after utilizing marijuana, in response to the Mayo Clinic, that means individuals can fail a drug check though they aren’t impaired.
The laws would forestall staff from being punished from failing a lot of these drug assessments. Corporations may nonetheless punish workers for failing different sorts of assessments that use saliva and are higher at figuring out if an individual is at the moment excessive.
The invoice now goes to the desk of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has till the top of September to resolve whether or not to signal it into regulation. It could take impact on Jan. 1, 2024.
“Nothing on this invoice would enable somebody to come back (to work) excessive,” stated Assemblymember Invoice Quirk, a Democrat from Hayward and the creator of the invoice.
California was the primary state to legalize medical marijuana in 1996, and it was one of many first states to legalize leisure marijuana in 2016. However the state has been sluggish to go legal guidelines defending staff who use marijuana on their very own time.
Six different states — Nevada, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Montana and Rhode Island — have legal guidelines defending staff’ rights to make use of leisure marijuana, in response to the Nationwide Group for the Reform of Marijuana Legal guidelines. Twenty-one states have legal guidelines defending staff who use medical marijuana from discrimination.
Labor unions argue it isn’t honest to punish workers for doing one thing that’s authorized outdoors of their job and doesn’t intrude with their tasks at work.
“Utilizing outdated hashish assessments solely causes workers to really feel unsafe and harassed at work, it doesn’t enhance office security,” stated Matt Bell, secretary-treasurer for the United Meals and Business Employees Native 324.
The invoice consists of a lot of exceptions to guard employers. It doesn’t apply to corporations that should carry out drug testing to obtain federal funding or adjust to federal contracts. It additionally doesn’t apply to anybody working within the constructing and building trades, an trade that advantages from a lot of federal funding.
Nonetheless, the California Chamber of Commerce opposed the laws as a result of it might “create a protected standing for marijuana use” in state regulation that bans discrimination within the office.
“Put merely: marijuana use is just not the identical as defending staff towards discrimination primarily based on race or nationwide origin,” the chamber wrote in a letter to lawmakers.