So, many people, including my son, are rejoicing because the voters in Maryland approved recreational marijuana (which Maryland refers to as “cannabis”) last week. Employers, however, are perhaps not quite so excited – and may be confused about what that actually means for the workplace. While we don’t yet have all the answers, let’s talk about what we do know.
Continue Reading Recreational Marijuana in Maryland? What Employers Need to Know
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Another State Finds No Federal Preemption of Its Medical Marijuana Law
Employer obligations to consider the use of medical marijuana as a reasonable accommodation just got murkier with a new case out of Delaware, Chance v. Kraft Heinz Foods Co., decided in December 2018.
Continue Reading Another State Finds No Federal Preemption of Its Medical Marijuana Law
Employers Tread Carefully! The Interplay between Federal and State Laws Regarding Medical Marijuana Usage
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has a reputation as an employee-friendly forum. Yet that Court recently rendered a decision that employers should applaud. In Carlson v. Charter Communications, LLC, the Ninth Circuit refused to revive a former employee’s lawsuit against his employer in which he alleged that he was wrongfully terminated due to his legal use of medical marijuana. Interestingly, the panel of the Court that issued the decision consisted of two judges appointed by Presidents Clinton and Obama and one judge appointed by President George W. Bush. The case involved a Montana statute known as the Montana Marijuana Act, which allows patients with state-issued medical marijuana program cards to have a certain amount of marijuana in their possession.
Continue Reading Employers Tread Carefully! The Interplay between Federal and State Laws Regarding Medical Marijuana Usage
Upon Further Review: The DEA Legalizes a Marijuana-Derived Drug
We’ve talked about this before. There is an ongoing tension between state laws decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes and federal law, under which marijuana is still classified as an illegal Schedule I Controlled Dangerous Substance. Back in July, we wrote in our blog that the FDA had recently approved Epidiolex (cannabidiol), which contains a marijuana-derived drug substance, for the treatment of two rare forms of epilepsy. As we stated in that blog post, this approval by the FDA did not necessarily signify that the federal government would soon reclassify marijuana, removing it from the list of Schedule 1 drugs because it has a medical purpose.
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The Smoke Hasn’t Cleared: What’s the Workplace Impact of the FDA’s Approval of a Marijuana Based Drug?
The FDA recently approved Epidiolex (cannabidiol), which contains a marijuana-derived drug substance, for the treatment of two rare forms of epilepsy. Does this mean that the federal government is saying that people can now begin using a marijuana-based drug treatment – including employees in the workplace? Not so fast.
Continue Reading The Smoke Hasn’t Cleared: What’s the Workplace Impact of the FDA’s Approval of a Marijuana Based Drug?