Oregon Looks To Make It Illegal To Ban Pot Outside Work

Source: Law360

By Kat Sieniuc

February 9, 2017

Oregon wants to make it so employers in the state can’t ban their employees from consuming marijuana outside the work day, according to a new bill introduced to the state Legislature.

Bill No. 301 would make it illegal for employers to require, as a condition of employment, that current or prospective employees “refrain from using a substance that is lawful to use under the laws of this state during nonworking hours.”

Measure 91 legalized recreational maijuana use in the state in 2014, but, as the AP reports, it did not affect existing employment law.

California, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada recently joined Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington in legalizing recreational pot, and in many of those states, employers can still drug test for ir, says Eve H. Wagner, a founding partner at Sauer & Wagner LLP in Los Angeles.

“For the worker who prefers marijuana to alcohol because it’s less likely to leave him or her feeling hung over, or incapable of going to work the day after, this can be a frustrating scenario. That’s because, unlike alcohol, marijuana doesn’t metabolize out of the system within several hours. It can stick around in the bloodstream for weeks, triggering a positive result long after it has any notable effect on performance,” Wagner wrote for Law360 in January.

Employees in workplaces with drug-free policies can still face risks if they continue to use marijuana, Wagner said.

“So why the difference between after-hours drinking and after-hours pot smoking? It’s because marijuana is still illegal under federal law. So while it may be lawful conduct outside of work, it is still a federal crime. Prop. 64 decriminalized marijuana in California, but it didn’t do anything to prevent employers from enforcing a drug-free workplace,” she said.