Business
Is It Ever Appropriate To Discuss Your Weed Habits At Work?
Even if it’s legal in your state, marijuana is still considered a dangerous drug on a federal level. So if you feel like speaking your truth, you have the right to do so, but there may be consequences.
With marijuana legalization spreading, talking about getting high has become more commonplace than taboo in many circles. When it comes to water cooler talk at work, however, cannabis conversations are still confusing to navigate.
Some states have laws protecting employees’ off-the-clock marijuana usage, while others do not. Some jobs embrace marijuana legalization while others have HR policies that read as though recreational marijuana isn’t “a thing.” All this uncertainty likely has you wondering if and when you can freely talk to your coworkers about your marijuana use.
Read The Room
Regardless of whether or not your company has specific marijuana policies, it is always best to understand the social climate of the office. Some workplaces promote the open and free spirit communication style of office behavior, while others are more tight lipped.
One thing to consider when you are wondering if it is appropriate to bring up marijuana use is how “getting high” is considered amongst many employers in legal states, according to an article by the Health and Safety Institute (HSI). “There is a parallel with alcohol use here. It is legal for adults over the age of 21 to buy and enjoy alcoholic beverages, but companies still have every right to expect an employee not to show up for work intoxicated, and not to drink while on the job.”
So if marijuana use is often treated the same as drinking, perhaps treat it as such. While staying in and smoking a joint is a different vibe than a night out at the clubs, the two acts are on similar wavelengths in the eyes of some professionals. If you wouldn’t tell your boss about getting drunk at happy hour, perhaps it’s best to keep your after work edible habit to yourself.
Know Your State Rights
Reading the room is important when it comes to not putting your foot in your mouth, but reading your state laws and employee manual can help keep you from losing your job. Some states, like New York, have laws protecting employees and their off-the-clock weed use.
“The DOL says employers are prohibited from discriminating against employees based on the employee’s use of cannabis outside the workplace, outside of work hours, and without use of the employer’s equipment or property,” wrote Forbes, in regards to New York’s new recreational marijuana inspired law.
Many other states, including California, do not have off-the-clock employee protections in place on a state level. Policy is often created at a local level or within a job’s employee manual. This can be altogether confusing for a marijuana user in a legal state, but it will remain a quagmire and headache until federal lawmakers and state lawmakers speak the same language on the subject.
As Reuter’s put it, “The business community should expect local lawmakers to continue taking a proactive role in providing marijuana-related protections to employees, which will in turn continue to cause tension between the federal framework, and the framework of what is now a majority of the states.”
If you use marijuana regularly, be sure to understand your local laws and your company policies. This is especially true with those who use medical marijuana. Different states have different protections, and it is critical you know what is and is not acceptable at your job.
Use Respect Common Sense
If you work in a relaxed establishment where others talk about dispensaries and getting high at concerts, the odds are it’s safe for you as an employee to join in on the conversation. Still, always remember that just because you get along with your coworkers does not mean you think the same. Don’t forget that although the majority of Americans support marijuana legalization, there is still a large minority who oppose it. The odds are one of those people could work in your office.
You never know if one of your new co-workers is a highly conservative “war on drugs” type. Remember coworkers have all sorts of different views, and marijuana is still a taboo subject for many. If you aren’t sure if it’s a good idea to discuss freely with co-workers, it probably isn’t. Remember that marijuana is still a class I substance on a federal level, which means that even if it is legal in your state, it is still considered a dangerous drug on a federal level.
So if you feel like speaking your truth, you have the right to do so, but there may be consequences. If, for some reason, you can’t decide if talking about your weed use is a good idea at work, it might be better to hold that thought until you clock out and see your friends whom you trust.
Source: https://thefreshtoast.com/cannabis/when-is-it-appropriate-to-discuss-your-weed-usage-at-work/
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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