Page 41 - Occupational Health & Safety, March 2019

DRUG TESTING
Marijuana in the Workplace
BY JACKIE PIRONE
www.ohsonline.com
MARCH 2019 | Occupational Health & Safety 35
It may seem hard to fathom but, in 2019, mari- juana is legalized for medical use in 34 states and the District of Columbia, and 10 states plus the District of Columbia have legalized rec-
reational marijuana use. Legalization efforts have not slowed, and marijuana use in the United States continues to rise along with it. Employers are in a precarious position when tasked with maintaining the productivity of their workplaces, and more im- portantly, the safety of their employees, their clients, and their data in the midst of surging marijuana use. And unlike other drugs, marijuana’s precarious po- sition between legal and illegal makes it different than other impairing substances.
Marijuana is Both Legal and
Illegal in Most States
Despite the widespread wave of marijuana legaliza-
tion in the United States, marijuana remains an illegal drug. The federal government has held firm in clas- sifying marijuana or cannabis as a Schedule I drug. Schedule I drugs, under the federal Controlled Sub- stances Act (CSA), are those for which the Drug En- forcement Administration (DEA) determines there is a high potential for abuse and for which there is no currently accepted medical use. The DEA reviewed its classification of marijuana in 2016 and affirmatively chose to keep marijuana on the Schedule I list.
Schedule I drugs cannot be prescribed by doctors or distributed at pharmacies. Possession and distri- bution of a Schedule I substance can be criminally prosecuted in federal court. Approval for research and clinical studies on Schedule I drugs is extremely limited. Additionally, Schedule I drugs receive no oversight or regulation by the Food and Drug Admin- istration (FDA).
While marijuana is illegal at the federal level in the United States, the federal government has gener- ally chosen not to prosecute those who possess and distribute marijuana in compliance with state laws. Thus, marijuana inhabits an in-between zone of legal- ity: legal and illegal at the same time. While the fed- eral government generally does not prosecute federal marijuana possession laws, it also does not budge on treating marijuana as an illegal drug for purposes of oversight, distribution, federal disability law protec- tion, etc. Federal requirements for drug-free work- places still require that employees test negative for marijuana along with other illegal drugs.
Marijuana as a “Prescription Drug”
As medical marijuana use becomes widespread, many mistakenly assume that medical marijuana use is the same as prescription drug use. However, because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, medical marijuana lacks the clinical trials and government oversight that prescription medication is subject to. Doctors operate largely blind as they attempt to “recommend” marijuana use to patients with little information about dosage, THC levels, and strains of marijuana.
Lack of oversight can mean lack of quality control, which can leave very vulnerable patients at risk of in- gesting mold, fungi, bacteria, pesticides, carcinogens, and many more dangerous toxins, often directly into their lungs. Even the effectiveness of marijuana as a medical treatment has not been subjected to the rig- orous testing that prescription drugs must undergo before they are permitted to be utilized as treatment.
Marinol® and Syndros® are two exceptions. Because of some of the reported medicinal properties