Paul Demko, cannabis editor at Politico, joins Cheddar News to discuss recent reforms aiming at workplace protections for marijuana consumers.

Between Bells

More States Implement Workplace Protections For Marijuana Consumers

Welcome back to Between bells. I'm claudia Yellow here in new york Washington D. C. Council committee last week unanimously approved a bill to ban most workplaces from subjecting job applicants to pre employment marijuana testing. It's a huge step forward for the cannabis industry. However, positions with the potential to impact the health or safety of employees or members of the public could still be subject to drug test for cannabis, including police officers, construction workers and the Federal Department of Transportation. Joining us now to discuss is paul, demko cannabis editor at politico paul, Thank you so much for joining us today to talk about these important developments. This legislation, which is sponsored by council Member Tree in White says, quote, this is an important step towards eliminating historic inequities of cannabis use in ensuring that those who use cannabis medically or recreationally are not penalized in their workspaces for what they do in their private time. What are your thoughts on this? I think it clearly reflects, you know, the widespread of marijuana legalization across the country that we've seen over the last decade. You know, with some 37 states now having medical or recreational markets. And you just see increasingly, the courts have been wrestling with this issue for years, particularly for medical marijuana patients and whether they can be fired for for, for using their medication. And increasingly, you're seeing the courts, um, decide no, that employees do have protections. And now you're starting to see increasingly legislatures really take it even out of the hands of the courts and passed legislation giving employers bolstered protections or employees excuse. now to your point, DC isn't the first to do this? We've seen other states take similar action, You know, including new york where I am right now. Um, so do you anticipate as we move forward and the stigma around cannabis declines? We will see other states following suit here, I think. Absolutely. And I mean, another huge marker earlier this year was, you know, amazon coming out and saying, you know, we're no longer going to test most of our workers for for marijuana use. I mean, that was a massive development and it reflects, you know, I think what you say that the changing cultural norms around marijuana use, but also this the current situation that we're in with hiring crunch and companies really struggling to get enough workers to fill their jobs? I was riding down the highway just on saturday and I saw a billboard for manufacturing uh, jobs and it said $20 an hour, starting at $20 an hour and right below that was no THC testing. And so, you know, I think those two things are really driving this across the country. That's really incredible paul. I want to follow up that on amazon and also say that they recently decided that their earlier decision to end this drug testing would be applied retroactively? So people who were formerly disqualified for cannabis in the workplace? Their eligibility would be restored. Is this going to make much of a difference for those particular workers? And do you anticipate other companies are going to mimic amazon's policies here? I think so. Absolutely. I mean, amazon is a huge driver of the economy. They're incredibly influential. What they decide to do as ripples throughout the global economy. So I think there's no doubt about it. And then again, the worker shortage, you see something like, you know, the trucking industry, which is really struggling to fill jobs and you see people being disqualified for marijuana use and yet our testing is so inadequate to, you know, reflect whether folks actually represent a danger to society because, you know, they can't really test impairment. It just, it just says, okay, this truck driver had tested positive for marijuana use. That could be any time in the last 30 days. It doesn't mean that person was a hazard um, to society and we just don't have the adequate testing at this point. And these industries are really being hurt by, by people being taken out of the jobs when they might, you know, when, when there might not be any reason for it. I want to talk about updates in Illinois as well. A new bill just passing are passing, they're suggesting that Illinois, workers will no longer be punished freezing cannabis during their free time. This is obviously a slightly different than pre employment cannabis testing. So what kind of implications does this have for the industry moving forward? Well, I mean, I think it just reflects that we're moving into an era where marijuana is going to be treated the same as alcohol when it comes to employment and other issues that, you know, if you're using the drug responsibly on your own time, not having anything to do with the workplace, you're not showing up at the job impaired. And what business is it of your employer about that? The same as, you know, often, you know, at seven o'clock at night, you decided to have a couple of beers and relax at the end of the day. We're just increasingly in a culture and business environment where we're moving towards treating these two things the same Now, I want to speak to about the federal government because as with most policies concerning cannabis, we have not seen things change at the same pace on the federal level. And I want to just bring back that report from about a year ago at this time from the Daily Beast suggesting that young staffers at the White House had actually been penalized for admitting to cannabis use, despite expressly being told that that would not be the case. Um, So obviously things moving a little bit more slowly there. What would it take for policies to change, you know, on the White House level? On the federal level here? Yeah, I mean, I think you clearly see the president and the biden administration are, you know, not super comfortable with relaxing restrictions on marijuana use. Um, biden is of, you know, older generation, he's somebody who spent decades in Congress passing tough drug laws and I don't think he's he's really moved on from that. And I think this administration's policies reflect that I think there is a generational change going on here. When you look at the Congress, you see, you know, there is a partisan divide, democrats are more, you know, more comfortable with this issue and with republicans, but there's also a generational divide. You see lots of young republicans that are more comfortable with with relaxing restrictions. And I think, you know, when you look at Congress, when you look at who's in power in Washington, it's a lot of folks who are, who are much older and I think that's definitely going to change with time, but it just may be slower than we see in state legislatures or among the private sector. And finally, here, you know, a lot of equity has become a major conversation, especially for, you know, Democratic lawmakers, Democratic led states, for example. And it is one of the reasons that folks are citing implementing these new changes. So what kind of impact would these new policies allowing, you know, cannabis use off the clock or not, including pre employment drug testing actually have on communities that have perhaps been disproportionately impacted by punitive drug laws. Would this make a big difference? Well, we know that that black people in particular have faced enforcement levels high, hot, far higher than whites, even though surveys show that that both groups use marijuana at roughly the same rates. So, I mean, the study, you know, two different times. They've done the study at both times, almost four times as high level of enforcement among black people. So I think anytime you're removing some of these penalties and removing some of those enforcement levels, then hopefully folks who have done disproportionately targeted under criminal enforcement under job penalties will be disproportionately benefit from the the removal of those restrictions. So I think that's how you to think about it, paul. Thank you so much for joining us today. And for all of your insight, that's paul dunk. Oh, cannabis editor at politico.