Nathaniel M. Glasser, a Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in the Bloomberg BNA Daily Labor Report,in “Kohl’s Medical Marijuana Policy Sparks Worker’s Claims,” by Patrick Dorrian. (Read the full version - subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
“Given the state of play with respect to various state laws on medical marijuana use and the fact that using marijuana is still illegal under federal law, I advise employers who have zero-tolerance drug policies to maintain them as the most prudent course of action,” the Washington, D.C.-based Glasser told Bloomberg BNA Aug. 3.
“But the caveat to that,” he added, is that some states—including New York, Illinois and Minnesota—have laws prohibiting employment discrimination against medical marijuana users and/or requiring employers to reasonably accommodate an employee's medical marijuana use.
Employers in these jurisdictions, which also include Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Nevada, Arizona and the District of Columbia, need to be prepared to accommodate a worker's off-duty medical marijuana use and to take adverse job action against such an employee only when he's impaired on the job, Glasser said.