Employee Protections in the Era of Medical Marijuana Legislation

Quest Diagnostics recently wrote an excellent, up-to-date summary (as of March 2017) regarding the current state of marijuana legislation as it relates to employee protections and marijuana use. They’ve placed each state into one of four categories based on the current level of employees protections provided by law. Be sure to click over to Quest’s article for more details and a downloadable info graphic.

As a reminder: All marijuana use, recreational, medical or otherwise is prohibited by DOT federal regulations. There is currently no scenario in which a medical review officer would overturn a laboratory positive result for recreational or medical use purposes – regardless of state law.

States with no or undefined employee protections: 

• Washington
• Oregon
• Ohio
• Montana
• Michigan
• Colorado
• California

States likely providing no employee protections

• Alaska
• Hawaii
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• New Hampshire
• New Mexico
• Vermont
• Washington, D.C.

States with explicit employee protections

• Arizona
• Arkansas
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Illinois
• Maine
• Minnesota
• Nevada
• New York
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island

States with unclear employee protections

• Florida
• Louisiana
• New Jersey
• North Dakota

Source: Quest Diagnostics full article link: https://blog.employersolutions.com/marijuana-employee-protections/