Is it ok for a company to fire you for MMJ use?

[tbeltrans]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I can't honestly address the legal issues because the law is not my forte.

However, as a long time worker at a variety of jobs, I really have not had much trouble with employers. I have certainly been laid off when there was no work or our office was being closed or whatever.

I stay out of trouble by never forgetting that the employer is buying my time. That time is theirs, it isn't about me, and it is my responsibility to focus on what I am being paid to do. As a result of showing up on time, doing what I am responsible to my employer to do, and not causing him or her any undue trouble on the job, I have had a decent reputation and not had trouble finding another job when I needed to.

For a period of time, I was manager of an engineering group, so I saw it from that side too. A manager wants employees who focus on the work when they are at work, producing what needs to be done and not causing trouble.

I really would not want somebody who is stoned or drunk, working on my car, operating on me, or doing any of the things I personally would need to hire somebody to do. To me, looking at it from that perspective makes it easier for me to know what to do and not to do on the job, because in that situation, I am the person somebody else is hiring.

Tony

[Davis Webb]

Totally legal here in 3 weeks, all over Canada.


Now we will have to deal with a ton of issues like this;;

a. you get a scrip for MMJ and the smoke causes asthma in your neighbor..who wins the court case?
b. you take MMJ for pain and drive 4 hours later,,,,or will the court rule that you must wait 10 hours?
c. you take MMJ for pain and you need to toke in a public place....what qualifies as a public place (already Ontario has declared there are very few places you will be allowed to use it)
d. you grow 5 plants but the legal limit is 4, what is the penalty?

Call us back in 5 years and we will help you figure it out.

[fazool]

Our company is in the process of dropping even recreational marijuana use from employee drug screening for this very reason.

We've spoken with a lot of companies and they all seem to be heading this way

[AmericanEagle]

Originally Posted by tbeltrans

I really would not want somebody who is stoned or drunk, working on my car, operating on me, or doing any of the things I personally would need to hire somebody to do. To me, looking at it from that perspective makes it easier for me to know what to do and not to do on the job, because in that situation, I am the person somebody else is hiring.

Tny

I’m not talking about getting high on MMJ then going straight to work.
If someone takes it on a Friday evening, then gets a pee test Monday morning,
it will show positive for marijuana. But the effects of that use will be long gone by then. But the person can still be fired? That’s just not right in my opinion.

[AmericanEagle]

Originally Posted by fazool

Our company is in the process of dropping even recreational marijuana use from employee drug screening for this very reason.

We've spoken with a lot of companies and they all seem to be heading this way

That’s a good thing.

[BrunoBlack]

Originally Posted by AmericanEagle

I’m not talking about getting high on MMJ then going straight to work.
If someone takes it on a Friday evening, then gets a pee test Monday morning,
it will show positive for marijuana. But the effects of that use will be long gone by then. But the person can still be fired? That’s just not right in my opinion.

People mistakenly equate the use of medical cannabis with being stoned. It is very easy these days to carefully control your dose by ingesting MMJ by means other than smoking. There are sublingual drops, tablets and suppositories for example. And there are products with only CBD that have no psychoactive effects. All MMJ products are tested and concentrations are measured & listed on the container so you have a good idea of how much active components you are taking with each dose. Patients have control over dosage and the resulting effect. And as you say, you might decide to limit the use of medical cannabis to times when you are home from work during evenings and weekends. Using MMJ doesn’t equal being stoned. I have a family member who has Tourettes. The use of CBD has provided uniquely successful relief from their seizures and tics. It would be a shame if they had to choose between medical relief and employment. I expect education, time and social understanding will change things.

[AmericanEagle]

Originally Posted by Haasome

People mistakenly equate the use of medical cannabis with being stoned. It is very easy these days to carefully control your dose by ingesting MMJ by means other than smoking. There are sublingual drops, tablets and suppositories for example. And there are products with only CBD that have no psychoactive effects. All MMJ products are tested and concentrations are measured & listed on the container so you have a good idea of how much active components you are taking with each dose. Patients have control over dosage and the resulting effect. And as you say, you might decide to limit the use of medical cannabis to times when you are home from work during evenings and weekends. Using MMJ doesn’t equal being stoned. I have a family member who has Tourettes. The use of CBD has provided uniquely successful relief from their seizures and tics. It would be a shame if they had to choose between medical relief and employment. I expect education, time and social understanding will change things.

Well said Paul!

[ahorsewithnonam]

THC stays in your system for months. A person would fail an employment drug test.

[RustyAxe]

If you work in a state that has “at will” laws you can be fired because the boss doesn’t like your cologne.

[Basalt Beach]

Originally Posted by ahorsewithnonam

THC stays in your system for months. A person would fail an employment drug test.

According to these articles, it depends on your usage and the type of testing being performed however I doubt many job seekers will ask about the specifics of the testing, as doing so may confirm the results in advance

https://mic.com/articles/168783/how-...now#.YiEg2kBgg

https://www.verywellmind.com/how-lon...e-system-67791

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3570572/

[JCave]

Originally Posted by fazool

Our company is in the process of dropping even recreational marijuana use from employee drug screening for this very reason.

We've spoken with a lot of companies and they all seem to be heading this way

We live in a ski resort area. All ski resorts stopped testing years ago. They still maintain the anti-drug policy but just don't test. Instead, if an on-the-job incident occurs, the employee is then tested. Makes sense to me.

And I just downed todays CBD oil. Today is gutter cleaning day, putting me on two different extension ladders. My knees hate those fricken ladders and the oil really helps.

[buzzardwhiskey]

Originally Posted by 1neeto

When you apply to a job, you’re given their terms of employment. If one of those terms is be drug-free, and you agree to that, then you deserve to be fired if you break that agreement. Whether MJ is legal or not is irrelevant.

Hmmm. If ingesting marijuana were legal, and doing what you wish with your body were a right, I'm not sure that such an agreement could be binding. A company might make a rule which requires or restricts virtually any behavior, and you might sign it hoping to get employment, but the courts might not allow it in a later suit.

[jhmulkey]

Originally Posted by buzzardwhiskey

Hmmm. If ingesting marijuana were legal, and doing what you wish with your body were a right, I'm not sure that such an agreement could be binding.

Sure it could. Wearing whatever clothing you want is both legal and a right, yet you can be fired if you don't adhere to company dress code. You can even be fired based on your actions outside of work / off the clock. I doubt any wrongful-termination suit would hold up for these kinds of things. Now, if you were fired for refusing to do something illegal at the request of your employer, etc. that's a different case.

[Guitars+gems]

Originally Posted by AmericanEagle

I’m not talking about getting high on MMJ then going straight to work.
If someone takes it on a Friday evening, then gets a pee test Monday morning,
it will show positive for marijuana. But the effects of that use will be long gone by then. But the person can still be fired? That’s just not right in my opinion.

Well, this is interesting, right? Because do you mean someone would medicate their pain on weekends, but go to work in pain all week? Or it just so happens that the pain presents on the weekends and then recedes during the work week?

Let's say someone gets dental work and is prescribed Tylenol with codeine. Does she/he go to work and take the pain med if needed while there, or stay home in order to use the med, or go to work in pain and refrain from using the med? I think it should depend on how the medication affects function and judgement.

What about pain itself? Can the very presence of pain subvert an individual's attention from the work? If the answer is yes, and I know that it is, then wouldn't it be better for the worker to manage the pain as long as the ability to perform the tasks is not adversely affected?

It's all such fine line stuff. I'm just not sure that drug levels in urine are an accurate indicator of a person's ability to perform their job without impairment (or to operate a vehicle for that matter). What should be tested, in my opinion, is the functional ability to perform the work. Why do companies test for drugs anyway? Why test someone who meets or exceeds the job's proficiency standards, who doesn't call in sick or come in late excessively?

Alcoholics eventually call in sick a lot, or just don't show, come in late, function poorly at the job. That's the stuff that gets them in trouble, though it can take a while for that behavior to finally amount to a firing. As pointed out, alcohol levels drop rapidly so testing is less useful as a diagnostic tool, unless it's being used to confirm already suspicious behavior. So maybe urine testing for marijuana is in use to predict the employees who are likely to put the company at risk. And that's a whole 'nother can of worms. Is there enough evidence to reasonably predict that a marijuana user, recreational or medical, is likely to become a future liability? Is there a significant number of marijuana consumers who were busted for embezzling funds to pay for the substance? Do marijuana users call in sick more than non-users? Are they more likely to be tardy? That kind of thing.

[ManyMartinMan]

Hassome is quite correct. To add, not all medical marinuana, or recreational for that matter, contains THC. Pain treatments and seizure treatments can be THC free and medicate with CBD. Some are hybrids with both. How testing works I can speak on - the musician’s union doesn’t test. I do fee for anyone who has debilitating pain or other conditions that can be successfully treated with marijuana. You shouldn’t lose, or even fear losing, you job for medicating for a medical condition. I understand that many jobs (heavy-equipment operator, OTR trucker, police, fire....) can justify that the use of any possibly intoxicating drug that would effect their work and therefore be a reason for dismissal or job modification. That would include many other prescription drugs as well.