Nathaniel M. Glasser, Member of the Firm, and Anastasia A. Regne, Law Clerk – Admission Pending, in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, and New York offices, respectively, co-authored an article in Cannabis Business Executive, titled “An Overview of Current Workplace Drug Policies Across the United States.”
Following is an excerpt:
As Cannabis Business Executive readers are undoubtedly aware, there is a growing acceptance of marijuana use throughout the United States. The numbers certainly speak for themselves. The 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that one in five adults in the United States have used marijuana, including 15% in the prior year, and 22.1% in the prior month – up from 20.8% in 2016.
Support for the legalization of cannabis continues to grow, too. In a 2018 Pew Research Center survey, 62% of U.S. respondents said that marijuana use should be legal, whereas only 31% supported legalization in 2000. State laws have responded to this trend: 33 states and Washington, D.C. have legalized medical marijuana; 10 states and Washington, D.C. allow both medical and recreational use of marijuana; and some states permit (limited) use of products with low levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), while others permit only products containing cannabidiol (CBD). Some states, most recently New York and Hawaii, have also decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
So – how does this support for cannabis impact employers’ drug screening policies?