Marijuana Doesn’t Work in the Workplace

Despite the wave of conservative victories across the country on Tuesday night, liberals won a number of ballot initiatives.

Voters in California, Massachusetts, and Nevada all approved measures to legalize recreational weed — while in Arkansas, Florida, Montana, and North Dakota, voters approved the legalization of medical marijuana. Some of these victories were narrower than others, but at the end of the day the marijuana industry made gains in the legalization battle.

The legalization and popularization of marijuana could make drug testing more prevalent.

“This is really more about the commercialization of marijuana rather than just making it legal,” said Charles J. Faris, president emeritus of Spectrum Health Systems Inc. in Worcester, Massachusetts. “It’s about some investors wanting to establish a market that they want to grow. It’s really based on expansion of use.”

The formula is simple supply and demand — and a few entrepreneurs wanting to get rich off the misfortunes of habitual drug users.

Related: High-Potency Pot Doubles Risk of Dependency

Lawmakers and public officials in the know opposed these laws. The Massachusetts Sheriffs’ Association, which is often vehemently divided on matters of public policy, unanimously opposed the law. Other private organizations, such as the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, opposed legalization because there is still no consensus on how much THC levels in the blood affect driving. The National Highway and Traffic Administration also pointed out that on-site tests for determining whether a person is intoxicated with pot remain unreliable.

Setting aside concerns about driver safety, teenage use, and gateway drugs for a moment, this could spell serious problems for employment and businesses. Most employers don’t care about alcohol consumed off-site, as long as it doesn’t affect job performance drastically. But when employees use illegal drugs, they often drop dramatically in job performance, and show signs of drowsiness, impaired judgment, and possibly even possessing or selling drugs on site.

Related: Straight Talk on Marijuana and Fertility

Written reprimands work for a first-time offense, but employers are within their rights to lay off any employee who comes to work under the influence of illegal drugs. The legalization and popularization of marijuana could make drug testing more prevalent.

“What you’re going to see is more institution of drug testing on the work site because you’re talking about people who become impaired,” Faris told LifeZette. “If someone shows up at the work site under the influence of alcohol, they’re sent home and discharged from their job.”

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Drug testing gets complicated because it can often seem intrusive and targeted. It can unnecessarily damage reputations, cause emotional distress, and even lead to unjustified layoffs. Opponents of drug testing prefer that employers choose a more expensive option: training, education, and rehab services. That seems unlikely, but with pot legal in more areas across the country, these questions will hit the national spotlight soon.