Page 17 - Florida Sentinel 10-21-22

FAMU News
Medical Cannabis Patients Lack Workplace Protections
Editor’s note: This com- mentary is provided by the Medical Marijuana Educa- tion and Research Initia- tive (MMERI) of Florida A&M University.
There is no gray area in Florida when it comes to med- ical marijuana patients’ rights for protection in the workplace. They have none.
“Florida law makes it very clear that employers are permit- ted to terminate employees who are drug tested and they're found to have marijuana in their system, even though it was rec- ommended by a doctor,” says Robert Weisberg, an expert in the field of employment laws and workers’ rights. He is the re- gional attorney for the Miami District Office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Com- mission, better known as the EEOC.
Regardless of the medical benefit to an employee, an em- ployee may be at risk of loss of employment. For example, al- though the use of medical mari- juana for chronic pain improves an employee’s ability to do their job, an employer with a strict drug-free workplace rule may have no choice but to terminate that worker for violating com- pany policy.
In 2020, a Marion County high school dean and military veteran lost his job after testing positive for medical marijuana, which he used to treat a combat injury. While the school dis- trict’s drug-free workplace pol- icy led to his termination, he could have faced the same fate anyhow because public schools receive federal funding. Mari- juana — recreational or medical
ROBERT WEISBERGH
— is illegal under federal law. Weisberg says employees fired for marijuana use lack legal grounds in Florida for get-
ting their jobs back. “Specifically, laws adopted by
the Florida legislature to imple- ment the 2016 constitutional amendment approved by 71% of Florida voters make it clear that there's no cause of action against an employer for wrong- ful discharge or discrimination,” explains Mr. Weisberg. The law “doesn't require an em- ployer to accommodate the medical use of marijuana in any fashion.”
This uncompromising legal position on cannabis use can put medical marijuana patients in uncertain situations with some employers, particularly those re- ceiving federal funding.
Human resources (HR) con- sultant Trisha Zulic is the CEO of Efficient Edge HR & Training Service in San Diego. She says employment biases against cannabis are a barrier to acquir- ing and retaining talent and ad- vises employers to stop testing for it.
“As an HR professional, I tell other HR professionals to drop [cannabis] from your [drug test- ing] panel because the test does- n’t tell you if the person can perform the job,” says Ms. Zulic.
She also recommends that
LANETT AUSTIN
employees and job applicants keep their medical cannabis use to themselves. But she advises them to read the employee handbook to see if there is a company policy on prescription drug use, although technically medical marijuana is not pre- scribed; it’s recommended.
“Don't disclose anything you're not asked about,” Ms. Zulic suggests. “And if you're asked about it if they say specif- ically, ‘Do you utilize mari- juana?’ You need to take a step back and say, ‘Is this a company I want to work for because I don't think they're allowed to ask me for that information dur- ing an interview process."
They are not, says Lanett Austin, explaining that per- sonal health information is pro- tected under the federal HIPAA Privacy Rule. Ms. Austin is the vice president of Culture, En- gagement, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Curaleaf, a national producer and distributor of cannabis products.
Ms. Austin and Ms. Zulic believe that job candidates are more selective in their employ- ment searches because they can afford to be in today’s tight labor market. They say this new para- digm in the workforce has led employers to update their cor- porate cultures and relax their attitudes toward marijuana.
“People are no longer mold-
ing themselves to the job or the employer industry,” says Ms. Austin. “It's reversed. They're going, ‘This is who I am. I want to show up authentically. And I have found that medical cannabis is much better for me than prescription drugs or alco- hol.’”
Adds Ms. Zulic: “You know what I tell HR professionals and business leaders? Nothing changes if nothing changes. And we just have to begin that change, that innovation, to be more inclusive in what we do. Yes, that does include the use of medical marijuana.”
Weisberg, the EEOC lawyer, says he believes employ- ers’ restrictive policies on mari- juana will “fade away” out of necessity. He attributes this view to multiple factors, includ-
ing increased
societal acceptance of medical marijuana and that employees using recreational cannabis while they are visiting states where it is legal may “come back to Florida, and two weeks, three weeks later they’re drug tested, and it still might be positive. So, I think that looking at them as lawbreakers is really becoming an obsolete way to even look at the issue.”
Visit https://bit.ly/-
CannabisInWorkplace to watch MMERI’s Conversations on Cannabis Virtual Forum featur- ing Trisha Zulic, Lanett Austin and Robert Weisberg discuss cannabis in the workplace. For more information on medical marijuana and to sign up for the MMERI newsletter, go to http://mmeri.famu.edu.
TRISHA ZULIC
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