Calif. Chamber of Commerce fights pot proposition
Calif. Chamber of Commerce fights pot proposition
Looks like the chanmber of commerce is against us:
"SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — A California ballot initiative that would legalize adults’ recreational use of small amounts of marijuana is raising questions about its potential impact on workplaces in the Golden State should the measure pass on Nov. 2.
At issue: Would weekend pot smokers be the beneficiaries of growing social acceptance and less rigorous hiring standards related to their off-the-clock habits? Or would employers suddenly have to accommodate recreational pot smokers in a way that jeopardizes their ability to ensure a safe and productive workforce? Read more on pot, pollution, portioning on California ballot.
“Employers are probably concerned, but it doesn’t change anything for employers,” said Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, a Princeton, N.J.-based outfit that works to protect human rights in the workplace.
The Vote on Legalized Marijuana
Californians are casting ballots next week on a proposition to legalize limited use of marijuana. Video courtesy of Reuters.
“If people are now able to have a small amount of marijuana without it being a crime, that makes it a little more acceptable, and employers may be a little less likely not to hire someone who’s a weekend pot smoker,” he said.
“It might change the climate just a little bit,” Maltby said. “Would you refuse to hire someone for the equivalent of a traffic ticket?”
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came out against Proposition 19. But he recently signed a bill that lowers the penalty for adults caught carrying small amounts of pot to the equivalent of a traffic ticket. As of Jan. 1, possession of up to an ounce of marijuana will be classified as an infraction instead of a misdemeanor in the state.
Prop. 19 has split law-enforcement groups and caused many Democratic politicians either to oppose the issue outright or remain mum about it. But the measure also enjoys some high-profile support. Former Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders backs the initiative, saying legalization would help keep more nonviolent youth out of jail. Earlier this week, billionaire financier George Soros contributed $1 million to the Prop. 19 campaign.
‘Uncharted territory’
The California Chamber of Commerce disagrees that Prop. 19’s effects would be minimal. Last week, the employer lobbying group began airing radio ads in Southern California detailing its opposition.
“It creates a whole new protected class of employees and ties employers’ hands in maintaining a drug and alcohol-free workplace,” said Erika Frank, general counsel for the California Chamber of Commerce in Sacramento.
“It’s uncharted territory,” she said. “There are a lot of ambiguities the initiative creates that unfortunately won’t be resolved until employers are sued.”
“The concern is being able to manage marijuana use and employees showing up to work high on marijuana,” Frank added.
Employers today can act upon their workplace policies and take disciplinary action on the spot if they suspect a worker is high on drugs or alcohol, she said. But Prop. 19 would change that by requiring that a worker have “actual impairment” before employers can take action, and that definition is unclear, she said. “An accident may have to happen before any action can be taken.”
Prop. 19 also would prevent employers from using a positive result on a marijuana drug test against a job candidate in the hiring process, Frank said.
Testing put to the test
Hanna Liebman Dershowitz, an attorney who’s co-chair of the Yes on 19 legal subcommittee, called the Chamber’s assertions inaccurate. Workers wouldn’t be able to use pot and then drive a school bus or operate a forklift with impunity, she said.
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Hemodialysis is a life-saving treatment for thousands of Americans with kidney failure. Harvey Wells, a dialysis patient, travels the country in his RV to demonstrate the health benefits and freedom offered by home dialysis.
“There’s nothing in Proposition 19 that would require employers to tolerate marijuana use on the job,” Dershowitz said.
But what employees do with pot on their own time is a different matter.
“I submit that given the amount of marijuana use today, there are many perfectly functional and positively exemplary employees who choose to use marijuana in a recreational and non-problematic way,” she said.
A major point of contention seems to be employers’ use of urine tests to determine the presence of marijuana metabolites in workers’ systems. This method is an unreliable gauge of impairment, Dershowitz and others argue, because it captures pot use days or even weeks after it may have occurred since marijuana metabolites linger in the system long after the user’s high has worn off.
Proposition 19 “still allows for drug testing and still allows for employers to maintain a drug-free workplace,” said Stephen Gutwillig, California state director for the Drug Policy Alliance, a national nonprofit group. “It just doesn’t allow you to fire someone solely on the basis that they consumed marijuana in the last month.
“Why should an employer be able to summarily fire an employee for smoking pot three weeks ago?” he said. “The only defense that behavior has is based on the illegality of a substance that a majority of Californians think should be changed anyway.”
Nationally, about one in five employers say they don’t test job candidates for drug use, but 55% report conducting drug tests for all candidates, according to a survey of 433 human-resource managers fielded last November and December from the Society for Human Resource Management. Another 17% of HR managers say they only require drug testing for safety-sensitive positions while 7% say they only test job candidates for drugs when required by law.
Drug testing doesn’t always stop once the hiring process is complete. Of employers that engage in the practice, more say they’ve stepped up their use of drug tests in the last few years, according to the survey.
Eighty percent said they required workers to take a test in 2009 when there was “reasonable suspicion” of drug use, up from 73% who said so in 2006. Another 69% said they tested workers after an accident, up from 58% who did so three years before. Last year, 46% of HR managers said they had workers submit to random drug testing compared with 39% who did so in 2006.
Making pot more like alcohol
Prop. 19 would level the playing field between marijuana and alcohol and bar employers from retaliating against workers who use pot on their own time, Gutwillig said. “That’s the standard we have for alcohol and for prescription drugs, and it only makes sense that marijuana, which is objectively, scientifically less harmful than alcohol, should not be held to a higher standard.”
If it passes, the measure would allow adults age 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and cultivate up to 25 square feet of the plant for personal consumption. An ounce of pot has a street value of about $400 and is enough to supply at least 20 joints, Gutwillig said.
California voters, who legalized medical marijuana in the state in 1996, appear to be losing their initial gusto for Proposition 19 as election day draws near. Only 44% of likely voters said they support it, down from 52% who were in favor last month, according to a poll released Oct. 20 from the Public Policy Institute of California. The portion of likely voters opposed to the measure rose to 49% from 41%.
Apart from the employment aspects, the push to legalize and regulate marijuana is meant to change damaging drug policy overall, Dershowitz said.
“What we really need to do is help address the violence, crime and corruption we’ve added to the mix on marijuana by criminalizing it,” she said. “Those things can be significantly reduced and even eliminated over time, just like with alcohol.”
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/california-employers-fight-pot-proposition-2010-10-28
Calif. Chamber of Commerce fights pot proposition
Looks like the chanmber of commerce is against us:
"SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — A California ballot initiative that would legalize adults’ recreational use of small amounts of marijuana is raising questions about its potential impact on workplaces in the Golden State should the measure pass on Nov. 2.
At issue: Would weekend pot smokers be the beneficiaries of growing social acceptance and less rigorous hiring standards related to their off-the-clock habits? Or would employers suddenly have to accommodate recreational pot smokers in a way that jeopardizes their ability to ensure a safe and productive workforce? Read more on pot, pollution, portioning on California ballot.
“Employers are probably concerned, but it doesn’t change anything for employers,” said Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, a Princeton, N.J.-based outfit that works to protect human rights in the workplace.
The Vote on Legalized Marijuana
Californians are casting ballots next week on a proposition to legalize limited use of marijuana. Video courtesy of Reuters.
“If people are now able to have a small amount of marijuana without it being a crime, that makes it a little more acceptable, and employers may be a little less likely not to hire someone who’s a weekend pot smoker,” he said.
“It might change the climate just a little bit,” Maltby said. “Would you refuse to hire someone for the equivalent of a traffic ticket?”
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came out against Proposition 19. But he recently signed a bill that lowers the penalty for adults caught carrying small amounts of pot to the equivalent of a traffic ticket. As of Jan. 1, possession of up to an ounce of marijuana will be classified as an infraction instead of a misdemeanor in the state.
Prop. 19 has split law-enforcement groups and caused many Democratic politicians either to oppose the issue outright or remain mum about it. But the measure also enjoys some high-profile support. Former Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders backs the initiative, saying legalization would help keep more nonviolent youth out of jail. Earlier this week, billionaire financier George Soros contributed $1 million to the Prop. 19 campaign.
‘Uncharted territory’
The California Chamber of Commerce disagrees that Prop. 19’s effects would be minimal. Last week, the employer lobbying group began airing radio ads in Southern California detailing its opposition.
“It creates a whole new protected class of employees and ties employers’ hands in maintaining a drug and alcohol-free workplace,” said Erika Frank, general counsel for the California Chamber of Commerce in Sacramento.
“It’s uncharted territory,” she said. “There are a lot of ambiguities the initiative creates that unfortunately won’t be resolved until employers are sued.”
“The concern is being able to manage marijuana use and employees showing up to work high on marijuana,” Frank added.
Employers today can act upon their workplace policies and take disciplinary action on the spot if they suspect a worker is high on drugs or alcohol, she said. But Prop. 19 would change that by requiring that a worker have “actual impairment” before employers can take action, and that definition is unclear, she said. “An accident may have to happen before any action can be taken.”
Prop. 19 also would prevent employers from using a positive result on a marijuana drug test against a job candidate in the hiring process, Frank said.
Testing put to the test
Hanna Liebman Dershowitz, an attorney who’s co-chair of the Yes on 19 legal subcommittee, called the Chamber’s assertions inaccurate. Workers wouldn’t be able to use pot and then drive a school bus or operate a forklift with impunity, she said.
Advances in home hemodialysis
Hemodialysis is a life-saving treatment for thousands of Americans with kidney failure. Harvey Wells, a dialysis patient, travels the country in his RV to demonstrate the health benefits and freedom offered by home dialysis.
“There’s nothing in Proposition 19 that would require employers to tolerate marijuana use on the job,” Dershowitz said.
But what employees do with pot on their own time is a different matter.
“I submit that given the amount of marijuana use today, there are many perfectly functional and positively exemplary employees who choose to use marijuana in a recreational and non-problematic way,” she said.
A major point of contention seems to be employers’ use of urine tests to determine the presence of marijuana metabolites in workers’ systems. This method is an unreliable gauge of impairment, Dershowitz and others argue, because it captures pot use days or even weeks after it may have occurred since marijuana metabolites linger in the system long after the user’s high has worn off.
Proposition 19 “still allows for drug testing and still allows for employers to maintain a drug-free workplace,” said Stephen Gutwillig, California state director for the Drug Policy Alliance, a national nonprofit group. “It just doesn’t allow you to fire someone solely on the basis that they consumed marijuana in the last month.
“Why should an employer be able to summarily fire an employee for smoking pot three weeks ago?” he said. “The only defense that behavior has is based on the illegality of a substance that a majority of Californians think should be changed anyway.”
Nationally, about one in five employers say they don’t test job candidates for drug use, but 55% report conducting drug tests for all candidates, according to a survey of 433 human-resource managers fielded last November and December from the Society for Human Resource Management. Another 17% of HR managers say they only require drug testing for safety-sensitive positions while 7% say they only test job candidates for drugs when required by law.
Drug testing doesn’t always stop once the hiring process is complete. Of employers that engage in the practice, more say they’ve stepped up their use of drug tests in the last few years, according to the survey.
Eighty percent said they required workers to take a test in 2009 when there was “reasonable suspicion” of drug use, up from 73% who said so in 2006. Another 69% said they tested workers after an accident, up from 58% who did so three years before. Last year, 46% of HR managers said they had workers submit to random drug testing compared with 39% who did so in 2006.
Making pot more like alcohol
Prop. 19 would level the playing field between marijuana and alcohol and bar employers from retaliating against workers who use pot on their own time, Gutwillig said. “That’s the standard we have for alcohol and for prescription drugs, and it only makes sense that marijuana, which is objectively, scientifically less harmful than alcohol, should not be held to a higher standard.”
If it passes, the measure would allow adults age 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and cultivate up to 25 square feet of the plant for personal consumption. An ounce of pot has a street value of about $400 and is enough to supply at least 20 joints, Gutwillig said.
California voters, who legalized medical marijuana in the state in 1996, appear to be losing their initial gusto for Proposition 19 as election day draws near. Only 44% of likely voters said they support it, down from 52% who were in favor last month, according to a poll released Oct. 20 from the Public Policy Institute of California. The portion of likely voters opposed to the measure rose to 49% from 41%.
Apart from the employment aspects, the push to legalize and regulate marijuana is meant to change damaging drug policy overall, Dershowitz said.
“What we really need to do is help address the violence, crime and corruption we’ve added to the mix on marijuana by criminalizing it,” she said. “Those things can be significantly reduced and even eliminated over time, just like with alcohol.”
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/california-employers-fight-pot-proposition-2010-10-28
