\nSmoke that medical pot like it\u2019s your job, Nevadans.<\/p>\n
\tBut if you\u2019re not careful, your real job might go up in smoke.<\/p>\n
\tDespite the recent arms race to approve medical marijuana dispensaries in the state, the law is still clear: If you test positive for marijuana \u2014 medical marijuana card be damned \u2014 your employer can fire you, local labor lawyer Tony Golden said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\tHe spoke to about 20 Las Vegas human resources managers at Cashman Center about medical marijuana in the workplace, fielding questions from a variety of employers ranging from Clark County government to the Hakkasan nightclub.<\/p>\n
\tGolden explained that, although Nevada law instructs employers to make \u201creasonable accommodations for the medical needs of an employee who engages in the medical use of marijuana,\u201d the stipulation doesn\u2019t really matter. The federal government still considers marijuana an illegal narcotic, and that is enough justification for a boss to fire an employee.<\/p>\n
\tProbably.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThere\u2019s confusion in the workplace, and not just from people smoking pot,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n
\tThe confusion exists partly because no medical marijuana user has sued an employer after being fired for testing positive for marijuana, Golden said. So there\u2019s no case law in Nevada for lawyers or employers to analyze.<\/p>\n
\tSo until the federal government relaxes its standards on marijuana \u2014 or until a Nevadan challenges his firing in court \u2014 the federal ban on pot trumps the state law, he said.<\/p>\n
\tThat means a person with a medical marijuana card is putting his job at risk when using the drug, he said.<\/p>\n
\tMarijuana is different than prescription painkillers, such as the opiate hydrocodone, or alcohol. It\u2019s easier for an employer to determine whether an employee is abusing painkillers or alcohol through tests.<\/p>\n
\tBut it\u2019s difficult to accurately determine if a person is high at work, he said.<\/p>\n
\tRegular pot users could have marijuana metabolite in their blood for weeks after smoking, Golden said. If an employer suspects an employee is high and orders a drug test, it doesn\u2019t matter if that person hadn\u2019t smoked in week or a month \u2014 the test might be positive.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThere\u2019s just no good way to assess marijuana impairment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\tAnd whereas doctors will prescribe a certain dosage of painkillers, a medical marijuana card allows users to determine their own dosage. A man might prescribe himself \u201ctwo joints a day,\u201d but his employer doesn\u2019t have a baseline to determine if he\u2019s abusing the treatment.<\/p>\n
\tThe no-tolerance policy applies if someone smokes legal, recreational marijuana in another state, too. A Nevada employee who smokes pot on a ski trip in Colorado and later tests positive for marijuana can still be fired, even though the person never broke the law.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt\u2019s not criminal, but it doesn\u2019t mean you won\u2019t lose your job,\u201d Golden said.<\/p>\n
\tAside from hiring a lawyer, there\u2019s not much workers can do to appeal their firing.<\/p>\n
\tFederal and Nevada equal rights agencies won\u2019t touch marijuana claims, he said, leaving the matter to the courts.<\/p>\n
\tBut Golden also stressed that the laws could change. If the federal government relaxes its ban on marijuana, local employers will be forced to reassess the state laws on pot.<\/p>\n
\tThere are also six bill draft requests about medical marijuana pending for the next session of the Nevada Legislature, he said, so there\u2019s a chance state lawmakers will provide more clarity for this cloudy issue.<\/p>\n
\tEmployers can also provide clarity by communicating clearly to employees, Golden said. If an employer doesn\u2019t want employees using marijuana, they should specify in their handbook that the company prohibits all drugs banned by the federal government.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe policy should be consistent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\tAs for Nevadans with medical marijuana cards? Don\u2019t be too bold. If you come to work with red eyes and smell like skunk, you\u2019ll soon have more time than you wanted to smoke your medicine.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Smoke that medical pot like it\u2019s your job, Nevadans. But if you\u2019re not careful, your real job might go up in smoke. Despite the recent arms race to approve medical marijuana dispensaries in the state, the law is still clear:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}