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S M A L L TECHNOLOGIES W I T H Pot Breathalyzers
BIG VALUE is stoned is about to get a lot easier, thanks
Determining whether or not an employee

to a new device that’s a lot like an alcohol
breathalyzer. Given the dramatic expansion
of legalized recreational and medicinal mari­
juana across the country, when the technol­ Courtesy of Hound Labs
THE NEW, THE OLD & THE NOTEWORTHY ogy is released (anticipated for mid­2019),
Deliver on the Guest Experience & Overall Safety it won’t be a minute too soon.
Employers in the 33 states with some form of legal mari­
juana are scrambling on how best to approach drug testing
programs for injuries in the workplace. And the ski industry
is especially challenged with this issue, given that ski states
have been at the forefront of marijuana legalization: California
was the first state to legalize medicinal marijuana in 1996, and
Colorado and Washington were the first states to approve full
recreational marijuana in 2012. Of the 10 states with legal
recreational marijuana, and the 33 states with either medicinal
or recreational marijuana, 90 percent of all skier visits occur
in the 33 states that have some form of legalized marijuana.
Whether due to driving while stoned, or working while
under the influence of marijuana, drug testing has now become
dramatically more important for law enforcement and employers.
And the laws and regulations for drug testing are not remotely
keeping up with the rapid pace of pot legalization. Most states
have some form of mechanism or regulation that allows workers’
compensation providers to cut medical and other benefits if
drugs or alcohol are involved in workplace injuries. In Colorado
alone, an injured employee’s worker comp benefits can be cut
by 50 percent if drugs or alcohol are involved. As a result,
the incidence of drug testing is overwhelming employers
everywhere, even in states with no pot legalization. In fact,
the three largest ski states without any legal marijuana—
Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Idaho—all border states where
eeping up with all the technological innovations and the drug is legal recreationally, making access to pot easy.
gadgets that emerge on any given day is like trying In the past, for on­site drug testing, employers have used
Kto keep snow from melting in June: virtually impossible. everything from saliva mouth swabs to urine tests, or more
Which is why it’s great when ski areas can learn from each invasive blood testing. But while such tests can indicate the
other about ways of using new technology—or even tech- presence of marijuana in one’s body (sometimes for weeks
afterwards), they do not correlate to gauging real­time true
nology that’s been around awhile but has a relatively new impairment. Given that marijuana has only been effectively
application—to simplify operations, increase overall safety, legalized for a handful of years, and still illegal at the federal
save money, and enhance guest services. level, there is a dearth of research on the best way to measure
Following are some of these applications. We plan to true impairment from pot use. But no states have been able to
highlight more of them in future issues, so let us know develop legal impairment standards for driving or workplace
about unique, noteworthy uses of technology and other safety beyond THC presence. Most states have zero tolerance
of any THC presence for driving laws; Colorado, Washington,
smart ways of doing things at your area so we can share and Montana have a legal limit of five nanograms of THC
them with others in the industry. per milliliter of blood for driving under the influence laws.

28 | NSAA JOURNAL | WINTER 2019