Week 6 EOC: Weed in the Work place

In the face of current ballot issues up for voting there are many issues that can have an impact on the labor force. One of the key issues lately has been the legalization marijuana. While many people are going to be debating whether to pass it or not, I do not. I wish to instead focus on the effects of marijuana use in the job force. First and foremost, if it is legalized for recreational use doe companies still have the right to terminate employees for using marijuana and testing positive on a drug test. The answer is yes; “In Colorado, in the matter of Coats v. Dish Network; Coats, the plaintiff was subject to a random drug test that showed the presence of marijuana in his system. The employer had a "zero tolerance" policy for the use of drugs and, therefore, terminated the plaintiff's employment. The trial court dismissed the employee's claim on the basis that the use of marijuana, even if legalized under state law, was not a legal activity. In June of 2015, the Colorado Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the trial court and ruled that an employer is still permitted to terminate an employee who engages in activity that violates federal law.” (http://www.naceweb.org/j022016/marijuana-drugs-in-the-workplace.aspx) This means that although you can recreationally use marijuana you can’t use it in jobs that still operate under federal drug testing due to marijuana being a schedule 1 drug. The following question after that is whether or not use of marijuana can cause impairment in the job force, “In May 2015, an article in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine concluded that there is a likely statistical association between illicit drug use, including marijuana, and workplace accidents. The drug impairs attentiveness, motor coordination, and reaction time and impacts the perception of time and speed. Studies from the National Institute on Drug Abuse have found that marijuana negatively impacts driving performance, and other researchers have found that acute use of the drug increases the risk of crashes and fatal collisions.” (https://ohsonline.com/Articles/2016/02/01/Marijuana-Use-and-Its-Impact-on-Workplace-Safety-and-Productivity.aspx?Page=1) This concludes that certain jobs that require attentiveness and full use of motor functions would be impaired or will suffer under performance by the use of marijuana.