NORML worked with union members for nearly two years to assist them in securing the revisions.
Tag: employment discrimination
Washington joins a growing number of jurisdictions that have passed legislation limiting employers’ ability to pre-screen applicants for past marijuana use.
“This is a victory against discrimination toward people who use cannabis,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Karen Keiser. “For people using a legal substance — many of them for medical reasons — locking them out of jobs based on a pre-employment test is just plain unfair, and we are putting a stop to it.”
Employers will still be allowed to take action against an employee who is impaired on-the-job, but only if an employee “manifests specific articulable symptoms of impairment.”
Certain government positions would be excluded from the protections under this law.
Democratic Governor Ralph Northam has signed House Bill 1862 into law, which provides employment protections for state-registered medical cannabis patients.
And, a just-released statewide poll shows 68% of registered voters in Virginia, including majorities of Democrats and Republicans, support legalizing marijuana for adults.