Medical marijuana in the workplace a worrying issue

Next thing you know, they will outlaw smoke breaks. :-)
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http://www.gazette.com/articles/new-118652-marijuana-medical.html

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Grant Butterfield, legal counsel for Pinnacol Assurance, the worker’s compensation insurer, attempted to answer that question for local business owners and human resource managers Tuesday morning. The explosion in recent years in both patients and providers has made it an issue for a growing number of employers, he said.

“There seems to be, and I don’t want to alarm anyone, an epidemic of chronic pain among 20-something males,” Butterfield joked.

Butterfield reminded the group that marijuana remains an illegal drug under federal law and Colorado’s constitutional carve-out for medical marijuana doesn’t change that. Nor does Amendment 20, which legalized medical marijuana in Colorado in 2001, require employers to change their drug policies.

“Nothing in Amendment 20 requires an employer to accommodate the use of medical marijuana in the workplace,” he said. “There is no requirement to allow for smoke breaks.”

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others ban any tobacco product on the company property. some companies restrict employees who take legal prescription drugs if they could affect one`s job performance or safety. i`ve worked at several who restricts or will not allow a person to work if they are on drugs that cause certain side effects.